Tijuana Drug Cartel Leader 'El Ingeniero' Arrested in Mexico
Like most everyone else in Mexico, Fernando Sanchez Arellano was watching Monday's Mexico-Croatia World Cup match.
Unlike most everyone else in Mexico, Sanchez Arellano was arrested during the Mexican victory.
Known as "El Ingeniero," Sanchez Arellano is the suspected leader of the Tijuana drug cartel, and he was arrested Monday in a Mexican military raid in Tijuana's La Mesa district, according to a Fox News story, based on Mexican media reports.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in 2009 identified Sanchez Arellano as part of a new generation of bosses in the Arellano-Felix criminal organization, Fox News reported. Mexico had offered a $2.3 million bounty for information leading to his capture, according to Yahoo! News.
"Sanchez Arellano is a nephew of the Arellano Felix brothers who once ran the Tijuana cartel," Yahoo reported. That cartel was once one of Mexico's most notorious drug-trafficking operations and came into public consciousness as the group that partly inspired the movie "Traffic."
But most of the cartel's past leaders either have been arrested or killed, leaving the Tijuana cartel a ghost of its former, formidable self, Yahoo reported.
Sanchez Arellano is the nephew of Benjamin, Eduardo, Francisco Javier, Francisco Rafael and Ramon Arellano Felix, according to Fox News. The family was known to use torture and executions to defend their turf, according to news reports.
Benjamin and Eduardo both were arrested and later extradited to the U.S., Francisco Javier is serving a life sentence after being captured in 2006 by the U.S. Coast Guard, Francisco Rafael was killed last October, and Ramon Arellano Felix was killed in 2002.
According to a Newsweek report, Sanchez Arellano came to the top of the family organization after his uncles had relinquished power. A Mexican official said that Sanchez Arellano would be moved quickly to Mexico City from Tijuana, following his arrest.