U.S. Officials Predict Arrest of Suspected Drug Lords

Emboldened by the recent arrest of an alleged top lieutenant of a suspected Tijuana drug cartel, U.S. law enforcement officials predicted at a news conference Thursday that the arrest of the brothers behind the murderous organization may be near.

“They are more vulnerable than they have been in many, many years,” said Bill Gore, agent in charge of the San Diego office of the FBI. “We have a good chance for some arrests.”

Gregory Vega, U.S. attorney for San Diego and Imperial counties, said brothers Benjamin and Ramon Arellano-Felix may be hiding in the U.S. because they have become “notorious” in Mexico.

“If they are in the U.S., they will be caught,” Vega said.

The U.S. State Department is offering a reward of $2 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of either of the brothers, whose drug organization is linked to Colombian suppliers who provide drugs for the voracious illicit market in this country. The Mexican government is offering 4 million pesos ($418,000).

At the news conference with Mexican officials, Vega and Gore announced the unsealing of a 1998 indictment charging the two brothers, Ismael Higuera-Guerrero and three lesser figures with drug smuggling, money laundering and assisting in acts of violence.

Higuera, the cartel’s suspected commander, was arrested last week in Ensenada by the Mexican army and federal agents.

As outlined by the indictment, the cartel receives large shipments of cocaine and marijuana from Colombia and then smuggles them into the U.S. through the ports of entry at San Ysidro, Otay Mesa, Tecate and Calexico. Just how that is done was not revealed.

The unsealing of the indictment comes as Mexico’s ruling political party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), is facing the most serious threat in its 71-year reign: an insurgent campaign by National Action Party presidential candidate Vicente Fox, who alleges that the PRI is corrupt and in league with drug traffickers.

The cartel is alleged to have engaged in bloody turf wars with other drug organizations, including a shootout in the Guadalajara airport in 1993 in which Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Posados-Ocampo was killed by cross-fire.

The indictment says the cartel imposed a “tax” on other drug trafficking groups for operating in their territory and has a string of “stash” houses in the U.S. and Mexico to store drugs, money, vehicles, automatic weapons, armored cars and hand grenades.