Arellano Felix figure pleads guilty in U.S. federal court

By Greg Moran
Union-Tribune Staff Writer
6:36 p.m. October 19, 2009

SAN DIEGO – A former top lieutenant in the Arellano Félix drug organization pleaded guilty to racketeering and conspiracy charges in federal court Monday, the latest in a series of former top figures in the drug gang to admit to their crimes.

EfraÃ*n Pérez pleaded to one racketeering charge and another of conspiracy to use and invest illicit drug profits. Court records say that Pérez was once the right-hand man to Ismael Higuera Guerrero, himself a leader of the cartel.

Pérez was responsible along with Guerrero for organizing large drug shipments from Mexico to the United States through Tijuana, and enforcing the gang's violent control over smuggling in Tijuana and Ensenada.

Late Friday afternoon Armando MartÃ*nez Duarte also pleaded guilty to racketeering. He was working for the group as its security chief at the same time he was a federal law enforcement official in Mexico. His policing of the organization's Mexicali area was ruthless, and he is alleged to have overseen the torture and murder of scores of people.

Also last week, Jesús “Chuyâ€