USA: Law enforcement agencies from the U.S. and Mexico celebrate "Operation Shadowgame"

Law enforcement agencies from the U.S. and Mexico celebrated on Thursday (August 17, 2006) "Operation Shadowgame," a lengthy investigation that resulted in the arrest of Javier Arellano Felix, the alleged leader of one of Mexico's most feared drug cartels. Amid heavy security, that included police sharpshooters poised atop nearby buildings, the reported drug kingpin, arrived at the Coast Guard center in San Diego, before being taken downtown to a federal detention center. Officials say the arrest of 37-year-old Felix actually happened on Monday (August 14, 2006). The U.S. Coast Guard, working closely with the United States Drug Enforcement Agency apprehended him and seven others on a fishing boat off the coast of Baja, California. The arrests were said to be part of a "very long, very complex" undercover operation. The DEA had asked the U.S. Coast Guard for help after receiving a tip about the boat carrying Felix. "Well you have to have satisfaction, this is huge," explained DEA Special Agent John S. Fernandes. "The opportunity to capture a drug lord the calibre of Javier Arellano Felix is a unique event. If you look at the history and what has happened with Ramon and Benjamin and they are no longer part of this family and if you look at the result of the organization, is that there is no discernible leader left to fill that void. You have whatever remaining members, and I'm hesitant to even call them leaders, because of how they have been gutted, what you have is that they are left to their own demise." The Arellano Felix family gang was once Mexico's most powerful and feared drug cartel, running a vast smuggling operation out of the gritty border city of Tijuana. It lost some of its power in 2002, when its enforcer, Ramon Arellano Felix, was killed in a shootout with police and his brother, Benjamin, the cartel's mastermind, was arrested weeks later. Still, anti-narcotics experts say the family remained very much in business and had cut deals with the Gulf cartel based in Mexico's northeastern state of Tamaulipas. Mexico's top anti-drug prosecutor, Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, called Felix's arrest a major victory. "Today, we close one more chapter in the war against drugs, and today we demonstrate one more time that only through coordinated work, in mutual trust and recognizing one enemy in common, it's possible to win this war," said Vasconcelos. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Felix will face charges under a superseding Indictment filed in December of 2003. They include racketeering, conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine and marijuana and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

ITN Source | August 18, 2006

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