Tijuana Cartel Boss Eduardo Arellano Felix Rearrested in Mexico After Deported From U.S.
Eduardo Arellano Felix, aka "the Doctor" one of the alleged leaders of the notorious Arellano Felix drug trafficking cartel, is presented during a press conference In Mexico City, on October 27, 2008. Arellano Felix, 52, is under indictment for drug smuggling by a California court in the United States which had offered a five-million-dollar reward for his capture. LUIS ACOSTA/AFP via Getty Images

Tijuana cartel boss Eduardo Arellano Felix was deported from the United States back to Mexico on Monday after serving most of his 15-year sentence. However, the Mexican drug cartel leader was promptly rearrested when he arrived in his country to face criminal charges.

According to The Yucatan Times, Eduardo Arellano Felix was handed over to Mexican authorities at a border crossing in Matamoros, near Brownsville in Texas. He was then sent to the maximum-security prison, El Altiplano.

The Tijuana cartel boss is facing organized crime and drug trafficking charges in Mexico. Eduardo was one of the notorious Arellano Felix brothers who founded the Arellano Felix cartel in Tijuana.

He has been nicknamed "The Doctor" because he holds a medical degree. Eduardo was the chief financial officer for the Tijuana cartel or Arellano Felix Organization that sent tons of cocaine and marijuana into the U.S. for nearly two decades.

Eduardo Arellano Felix was arrested at his Tijuana home in October 2008 and extradited to San Diego in August 2012 to face the U.S. charges against him.

The Tijuana cartel boss pleaded guilty in 2013, and a San Diego judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison for drug smuggling and laundering millions of dollars in illegal drug proceeds. The U.S. earlier offered a reward of up to $5 million for his capture, Reuters reported.

Eduardo was the last of the notorious Arellano Felix brothers to be sentenced. The attorney general's office (FGR) in Mexico said the Tijuana cartel boss cooperated with U.S. authorities, so he only served part of the sentence.

The Arellano Felix Brothers of The Tijuana Cartel

Eduardo's brother, Benjamin Arellano Felix is serving a 25-year sentence in a U.S. prison. The U.S. and Mexican authorities believed that Benjamin was the Tijuana cartel's mastermind.

He was arrested in 2002 after he was extradited from Mexico. Their fourth brother, Ramon, who was the cartel's top enforcer, died in a shoot-out in Mexico in 2002.

Their oldest brother, Francisco Rafael, was convicted in 2008 of six years in prison for selling drugs to an undercover agent, BBC reported. However, U.S. authorities had set him free as he had already served time in Mexico.

Drug traffickers being freed has always been an issue for Mexico, especially after the release or near-release of several old-guard drug cartel bosses, Aljazeera reported.

Reports said that Mexico's current administration is earning a reputation for releasing more drug lords than it has captured.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has ordered the release of Ovidio Guzman in 2019 to avoid further violence. Ovidio is one of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's sons.

The Tijuana Cartel in Mexico

The Tijuana cartel is one of the most well-known organizations trafficking drugs in the United States in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Its founding members were Sinaloans who worked closely with Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, who started moving marijuana and heroin in the U.S. in 1960, InSight Crime reported.

When Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo was arrested, his nephews, the Arellano Felix brothers, led the cartel. The Tijuana cartel and the Sinaloa cartel had a violent rivalry in the early 1990s, marking Mexico's first major narco war.

A truce was formed between the Tijuana cartel and Sinaloa cartel in 2010, following the arrest and absence of the Arellano Felix brothers.

This article is owned by Latin Post

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Deportan a México al líder narco Eduardo Arellano Félix - From Noticias Telemundo