Tijuana cartel

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Border fence between Tijuana (right) and San Diego (left)

The Tijuana Cartel ( Spanish: Cártel de Tijuana ), also known as the Arrellano Félix Organization , is a Mexican drug cartel that emerged during the 1980s.

During the drug war in Mexico , it formed an alliance with the Beltrán-Leyva cartel against the powerful Sinaloa cartel . The Cartell Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) was indirectly created from the alliance . As the CJNG grew in size and influence, the Tijuana Cartel lost importance. The Tijuana cartel still exists, but operates primarily as an arm of the CJNG. It has therefore also been known in Spanish as '' Cártel Tijuana Nueva Generación '' (translated: Cartel from Tijuana - new generation ) since 2016 .

Overview Arellano Félix brothers

Photos of members of the Tijuana cartel on a poster of the FBI's "Most Wanted".

The Arellano Félix family, like Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (alias El Padrino ), the first Mexican drug czar, came from Culiacán , Sinaloa . The family moved several times, most recently to Tijuana. It consists of seven brothers:

  • Francisco Rafael "El Pelón" Arellano Félix (* October 24, 1949 - October 18, 2013): he was arrested on December 4, 1993, sentenced to ten years in prison, extradited to the USA on September 16, 2006, in October 2007 Sentenced to six years in prison, released March 4, 2008, and shot dead by a killer disguised as a clown on October 18, 2013 in Cabo San Lucas .
  • Benjamin "El Min" Arellano Félix (born December 3, 1952): he was arrested on March 9, 2002, extradited to the United States on April 29, 2011 and sentenced on April 2, 2012 to 25 years in prison.
  • Carlos Alberto Arellano Félix (born August 20, 1955)
  • Eduardo "El Doctor" Arellano Félix (born October 11, 1956): arrested on October 26, 2008, extradited to the United States on September 1, 2012 and sentenced to 15 years in prison on August 18, 2013.
  • Ramón Arellano Félix (born August 31, 1964 - February 10, 2002): shot dead by the police on February 10, 2002.
  • Luis Fernando Arellano Félix (probably born January 26, 1966)
  • Francisco Javier Arellano Félix (born December 11, 1969): arrested in international waters on August 16, 2006, brought to the US and sentenced to life imprisonment on October 5, 2007.

The family includes four sisters, including Enedina "La Jefa" Arellano Félix de Toledo (born April 12, 1961).

history

The organization's roots lie in the Guadalajara cartel , which collapsed after the arrest of its co-founder Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo in 1989. After Gallardo was arrested, disputes broke out among the Patrones . Since each of the five remaining drug lords from Sonora , Ciudad Juárez , Tamaulipas , Sinaloa and also from Tijuana wanted to secure increased influence, the Federación finally broke up and several small groups emerged that still exist today: Sinaloa cartel , golf cartel , Tijuana cartel, Juarez cartel .

In the early 1980s, Benjamin "El Min" Arellano Félix established himself in Tijuana, where he and his brother Ramón began planning the multi-million dollar business that would eventually expand into the United States, Europe, Asia and South America. With large amounts of bribes, estimated at 1 million US dollars per week, for Mexican politicians and police commanders, the organization was able to buy various protections.

Benjamín managed and oversaw all of the cartel's drug trafficking activities. He has been on the run since 1989 on charges filed in San Diego on May 2, 1989 of conspiracy, money laundering, drug trafficking, and running a criminal organization. Ramón, believed to be the most violent of the brothers, reportedly coordinated the organization's security and often recruited staff from violent street gangs. The organization's security forces, labeled as paramilitary by Mexican law enforcement agencies, were well trained and well armed. One of Ramón's jobs was to plan the murders of rival drug dealers, uncooperative law enforcement officers, and any cartel members who fell out of favor with the cartel leadership.

It was the Arellano-Félix brothers who declared war on Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada García and his partners El Chapo and Héctor "El Güero" Palma Salazar in 1992 because they gave them $ 20 million for importing drugs via their route to the USA owed. Between 1989 and 1992 they controlled all transfer routes to California and Arizona . With El Chapo's first imprisonment in 1993, the Arellano-Félix brothers were able to win the battle.

At the height of their network during the 1990s, they were responsible for 40 to 70 percent of the cocaine trafficking in the United States. The brothers are charged with a variety of crimes, including the assassination of the Archbishop of Guadalajara Cardinal Juan in May 1993. After his assassination, the organization became the focus of the Mexican crime fight. Francisco Rafael "El Pelón" Arellano Félix was the first of the brothers to be arrested in 1993, charged in the USA and served a prison term there until 2008. Ramón has been on the FBI 's top ten most wanted criminals list since September 1997 .

On March 11, 2000, Jesus Abraham "El Chuy" Labra Avilés , uncle of the Arellano-Félix brothers, was arrested by the Mexican federal police. He was extradited to the United States on December 31, 2008 and sentenced to 40 years in prison on April 5, 2010. He was the chief financial officer of the Tijuana cartel and a key figure in relationships with Mexican finance and real estate companies.

The US authorities also opened a ten-point charge against Ramón and Benjamín on May 11, 2000, accusing them of running a drug smuggling organization and kidnapping and murdering rival drug dealers, informants and police officers. Benjamín was arrested on March 9, 2002 by the Mexican army in the Mexican state of Puebla . A month earlier, on February 10, his brother Ramón was shot dead by a police officer during a traffic stop after Ramón shot him and later died of his injuries.

Deportation of Francisco Javier Arellano Félix by the DEA

The brother Francisco Javier then took over the leadership of the organization, but was arrested on August 14, 2006. After Francisco's imprisonment, brother Eduardo and sister Enedina Arellano Félix de Toledo took over.

In April 2008, a faction led by Teodoro "El Teo" García Simental and specialized in extortion and kidnappings split from the Tijuana cartel and later allied with the Sinaloa cartel. The Tijuana cartel was further weakened when Eduardo was arrested on October 26, 2008. Since El Teo was arrested in January 2010, the bloody power struggles in Tijuana have noticeably eased.

Since 2008, the organization will be led by Enedina and her son Luis Fernando "El Ingeniero" Sánchez Arellano . He was arrested by members of the Mexican Armed Forces on June 23, 2014 in Tijuana, La Mesa. During his tenure, the cartel was also known as the Fernando Sanchez Organization .

On November 5, 2011, Mexican troops arrested Juan Francisco "El Sillas" Rocha , who is said to have been the current number two in the cartel. It is believed that Alberto "El Piloto" Arellano, the son of Ramón, should have taken over the leadership of the "New Tijuana Cartel".

In June 2020 it was reported that much of the former territory of the Tijuana Cartel was controlled by the Sinaloa Cartel. Although the Cartell Jalisco Nueva Generación , which emerged from the Tijuana cartel, has increased in size and influence, it has not weakened the Sinaloa cartel .

Movie and TV

literature

Web links

Commons : Tijuana Cartel  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The murderer came as a clown. on: taz.de , October 19, 2013.
  2. ↑ a b Strike against the Tijuana cartel: 15 years imprisonment for drug lord "El Doctor". In: Spiegel Online . August 20, 2012, accessed October 23, 2013 .
  3. ^ The New York Times - Mexicans arrest top drug figure and 80 policemen
  4. ↑ Series Fox - "Narcos" Season 4: Teaser announces Diego Luna and Michael Peña
  5. ^ ABC News - How Officials Jolted a Cocaine Cartel
  6. ^ A b Frontline - The Business - Arellano-Felix Cartel
  7. ^ Debate - El extraditado: la historia de Benjamin Arellano Félix
  8. ↑ Aristegui Noticias - Cártel Arellano Félix: 23 años impunes de lavado de dinero
  9. ↑ Vice News - Last Link to the Tijuana Cartel Gets Arrested While Celebrating Mexico's World Cup Win
  10. ↑ Focus on Latin America - New speculations about the murder of Cardinal Posadas ( Memento of December 26, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ World 24 - Mexico's Most Powerful Drug Boss Arrested
  12. ↑ Tijuana arrestee Said to Be a founder of Drug Cartel. December 13, 2008, accessed October 27, 2013 .
  13. ↑ Ten of Mexico's Most Notorious Drug Traffickers Extradited to US December 31, 2008, accessed October 27, 2013 .
  14. ^ Three Arellano-Felix Members Sentenced to Prison and Two Will Forfeit $ 1 Million Each. April 5, 2010, accessed October 27, 2013 .
  15. ↑ The Standard - Most important drug boss in Mexico captured
  16. ↑ Carmen Boullosa & Mike Wallace - ¡Enough! The Mexico Case: Why We Need a New Global Drug Policy
  17. ↑ 20 minutes - This is the most dangerous woman in Mexico
  18. ^ TCO 101: The Arellano Félix / Fernando Sanchez Organization. Archived from the original on September 3, 2011 ; Retrieved August 30, 2011 .
  19. ↑ Powerful drug lord goes online to investigators. In: Welt Online. October 27, 2008, accessed August 30, 2011 .
  20. ↑ Drug boss "El Teo" captured. In: Spiegel Online. January 12, 2010, accessed August 30, 2011 .
  21. ^ A b Steven Dudley: Investigation: Who Controls Tijuana? In Sight, May 3, 2011, archived from the original on July 24, 2011 ; accessed on August 30, 2011 .
  22. ↑ Drug trafficking in Mexico: Football knows no mercy. June 25, 2014, accessed August 13, 2014 .
  23. ↑ Univision - Detienen a Juan Francisco Sillas Rocha 'El Sillas', lugarteniente de los Arellano Félix
  24. ↑ Why the Jalisco Cartel Does Not Dominate Mexico's Criminal Landscape. Retrieved August 12, 2020 .