• 07
  • January
    2012

"Today's guilty plea marks the end of his reign of murder, mayhem and corruption," says the prosecutor in 58-year-old Benjamin Arellano Felix's case. Felix recently pleaded guilty in a case that involves drug charges and other allegations.

As Marty Graham reports for the Chicago Tribune, Felix led the Tijuana drug cartel that operated in the 1980s and 1990s, engaging in drug trafficking and other activities on the border between the U.S. and Mexico.

The guilty plea involves admitting to trafficking in "tons of cocaine and marijuana," as well as money laundering.

Felix's guilty plea seems to mark the end of Tijuana drug cartel - at least symbolically - as Felix's brothers (who were all closely involved in drug cartel operations) have either been captured or killed; moreover, the rival Sinaloa drug cartel has largely assumed ownership over drug smuggling routes previously dominated by the Tijuana cartel.

As Graham reports, Felix's defense attorney said, "It was a favorable deal to my client" - his client faced the equivalent of life in prison, but the sentence was reduced to 25 years behind bars in exchange for forfeiting $100 million in drug money - "who faced a minimum of 40 years and a maximum of 140 years under the extradition agreement."

Source: Chicago Tribune, "Mexican drug lord pleads guilty to U.S. trafficking," by Marty Graham, 1/4/12