- Eduardo Arellano-Felix/dea photo
By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
The weekend arrest in Mexico of drug kingpin Eduardo Arellano-Felix was hailed Monday by the DEA as “one of the most significant arrests ever in the ongoing battle against global drug trafficking”.
Authorities said the Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego first identified the kingpin’s hideout in the Otay Mesa area of Tijuana.
Then Mexican authorities arrived at the scene on Saturday, where they got into a gun battle with Arellano-Felix , the DEA said. After shots were exchanged, Arellano-Felix was captured.
His 12-year-old daughter was then evacuated from the scene.
The U.S. State Department had been offering a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Arellano-Felix, authorities said.
He took over the day-to-day operations of the cocaine-marijuana cartel after his brother was arrested in August 2006, authorities said.
“The arrest of Eduardo Arellano-Felix closes the book on this once powerful and brutally violent criminal band of brothers,” said acting DEA Adminitrator Michele M. Leonhart.
