FORMER LEADER OF ARELLANO-FELIX DRUG TRAFFICKING ORGANIZATION
SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON

http://sandiego.fbi.gov

WASHINGTON – Francisco Javier Arellano-Felix, the former leader of the deadly drug trafficking Arellano-Felix Organization (AFO), was sentenced to serve life in prison, the Department of Justice announced today.

At the sentencing hearing at federal court in San Diego today, U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns also ordered Arellano-Felix, 37, to forfeit $50 million and his interest in a yacht, the Dock Holiday.

Arellano-Felix’s sentence follows his September 2007 guilty plea to operating a continuing criminal enterprise and conspiring to launder monetary instruments. According to court documents, since the 1980s, the AFO has controlled narcotics trafficking through the Tijuana and Mexicali corridors adjacent to the southern United States border with Mexico. As part of his guilty plea, Arellano-Felix admitted that, until his arrest, he was a principal administrator of the AFO. During that time, the AFO distributed indeterminable amounts of cocaine and marijuana, exceeding hundreds of tons.

Arellano-Felix admitted murdering and participating in and directing the murders of numerous persons in furtherance of the AFO’s activities. He also admitted that he and other AFO members repeatedly and willfully obstructed and impeded the investigation and prosecution of AFO activities by paying millions of dollars in bribes to law enforcement and military personnel, murdering informants and potential witnesses, and murdering law enforcement personnel. AFO members also routinely wiretapped rival drug traffickers and Mexican law enforcement officials; impersonated Mexican military and law enforcement officials; trained assassination squads; “taxedâ€