Tijuana Drug Operation Targets Fugitive Brothers

Truckloads of Mexican soldiers and federal police swept through this border city Friday in a series of dawn raids aimed at capturing the Arellano Felix brothers, alleged kingpins of one of Mexico’s most notorious drug cartels.

The show of force left wealthy hillside neighborhoods resembling the scene of a military invasion.

Soldiers used explosives and fired shots to storm the mansions of prominent businessmen believed to be associates of the elusive brothers.

Troops set up roadblocks at the U.S.-Mexico border crossing in San Ysidro, systematically searching vehicles and causing a huge traffic snarl.

There was no confirmation that the surprise operation had resulted in the capture of any of the Arellano brothers. Authorities raided at least 17 houses linked to the Arellanos, seizing weapons and sophisticated radio equipment, according to a press release issued by the Mexican attorney general’s office Friday night. Eyewitnesses also reported seeing five arrests on the streets of Tijuana.

Simultaneously, according to the release, federal police raided two houses in Mexico City and arrested one person, whom officials declined to identify.

The FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration, which have created a joint squad to investigate Tijuana’s most powerful gangsters, dispatched several agents to observe Friday’s raids, according to Robert Walsh, special agent in charge of the FBI in San Diego.

Errol Chavez, special agent in charge of the DEA in San Diego, said agents north of the border were “on alert” in case the brothers tried to flee across the international line.

And U.S. agents were trying to verify a report that Mexican agents had arrested one of the brothers, according to U.S. officials.

The reaction in Tijuana was mixed. A spokesman for the state government of Baja California declared that the use of heavy weapons and soldiers in the street was necessary given the firepower of the adversary.

“When the authorities know they may encounter resistance or a confrontation with a band like the Arellanos, they must take every precaution,” said Rodolfo Valdez, a Baja official.

Skeptics pointed out that the operation came on the same day that the Clinton administration certified the antidrug efforts of the Mexican government as acceptable. Some said Mexican authorities were trying to demonstrate their sincerity with a show of force that was more style than substance.

“It was a spectacle to show the U.S. government that they are really looking for the Arellanos,” said human rights activist Victor Clark Alfaro, who has conducted independent investigations of the brothers’ connections to corrupt police and prosecutors.

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Clark spoke to reporters after he was summoned to a hilltop mansion in the Lomas de Agua Caliente area by the family of Jesus Labra, a wealthy businessman and reputed Arellano associate whose home was searched.

The raiders found nothing in the home, Clark said, and the raid was carried out correctly. But he and others criticized a raid on another home in which soldiers blew open a door and fired shots through windows.

“We want them to fight drugs, but they practically placed some neighborhoods in a state of siege,” he said.

The three fugitive brothers--Benjamin, Javier and Ramon--are wanted in a series of murders that have occurred during a fierce three-year battle for supremacy in the Tijuana smuggling corridor. In 1993, Mexican authorities offered million-dollar rewards for their capture in connection with a shootout that killed the Roman Catholic archbishop of Guadalajara, Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo. The Arellanos have also been charged with killing police officials and prosecutors.

But they allegedly continue to dominate the smuggling and distribution of cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin into California, using a well-paid network of allies in the police and government to ward off capture, according to police in both nations.

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Friday’s raid was carried out by a 60-agent unit from Mexico City and caught federal agents in Tijuana by surprise, officials said. The participation of hundreds of soldiers underscored the emerging front-line role of the Mexican military in the drug war. Last year the military captured an alleged kingpin who had surrounded himself with corrupt federal officers.

There have been recent sightings of the Arellano brothers on both sides of the border, Walsh said.

“There’s been a lot of speculation about their travels around Tijuana and even into San Diego,” Walsh said. He said he believed that the operation was significant. “I would say I’m impressed by it. I think it means something.”