US arrests top Mexican drug lord
Wed Aug 16, 2006 1:25 PM ET

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials have arrested Javier Arellano Felix, a leader of one of Mexico's most feared drug cartels, a federal law enforcement official said on Wednesday.

The official gave few details of the arrest, which took place on a boat at sea and included other people believed to be part of the same organization. Further information was due to be released at a news conference at the U.S. Justice Department at 2 p.m. (1800 GMT).

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 ruthless 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-narotics experts say the family is still very much in business and has cut deals with the Gulf cartel based in Mexico's northeastern state of Tamaulipas.

Members of the Arellano Felix organization, including Javier, were indicted in the United States in 2003 for racketeering, conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine and marijuana and money laundering. The U.S. government had offered a reward of up to $5 million for information on Javier Arellano Felix and others.

Turf wars across Mexico claimed more than 1,000 lives in the last year.

(additional reporting by Kieran Murray in Mexico City)