Eduardo Arellano Félix, Ex-Boss of the Tijuana Cartel, To Be Released From US Prison in August

“MX” for Borderland Beat

Eduardo Arellano Felix (“El Doctor”), a member of a powerful clan that once headed the Tijuana Cartel, will be released from US prison in August 2021.

Arellano-Felix was arrested in Mexico in October 2008 after a large shootout with the Mexican Army and the Federal Police. He was extradited to the US in 2012 and found guilty of drug trafficking the following year. He was sentenced to 15 years, but will be released early due to time served.

In Mexico, he has no pending charges or arrest warrants despite the fact that he was one of Mexico’s most-wanted drug kingpins.

At the age of 64, Arellano-Felix will return as a free man to Tijuana, one of the most dangerous cities in Mexico today.

The Tijuana Cartel holds presence in the area but is no longer the hegemonic group it used to be. Other groups like the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) currently compete for control of the Tijuana corridor.

Background

The Tijuana Cartel controlled the drug trade from its base in Tijuana, south of San Diego, between 1986 and the 2000s. At the height of its power in the 1990s, the cartel smuggled hundreds of millions of dollars in narcotics through a 100-mile-wide corridor stretching from Tijuana to Mexicali, south of Calexico, California.

The Arellano Felix brothers gained an added measure of notoriety when the Tijuana Cartel and its battle with the rival Juarez cartel were dramatized in the 2000 film “Traffic,” which earned four Oscars.

In its indictment against the brothers, the U.S. government said Eduardo was doing business with an illegal enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity (RICO), conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine and marijuana, and money laundering.

Sources: Milenio; Infobae; Borderland Beat archives