Manhunt for Accused Mexican Drug Lord Comes Up Empty After 3 Years

Depending on which tips you believe, the most hunted fugitive along this piece of the U.S.-Mexico border has been skiing in Wyoming, gambling in Las Vegas or swapping e-mail in a lonely-hearts chat room.

Wherever he is, accused Tijuana drug lord Ramon Arellano Felix has stayed a step ahead of the law, despite a massive three-year manhunt by U.S. authorities, a $2-million reward and the arrests in Mexico last year of two of his gang’s alleged top figures.

Sightings in Tijuana, where Arellano once hit the nightclubs with a rock star’s bravado, have dwindled so markedly that many suggest he has left altogether. Authorities in Mexico say he may be living in the United States.

But U.S. law enforcement officials are convinced that Arellano and brother Benjamin, both of whom face federal drug-trafficking and conspiracy charges in the United States, continue operating in Baja California. A multi-agency U.S. task force targeting the cartel has gotten fresh word of sightings in Mexico in recent weeks.

“It’s home for them. They’re comfortable there, with family contacts and corrupt officials that help them,” said FBI Special Agent Donald E. Robinson Jr., a task force member.

There is “credible evidence” that Ramon, considered the most outgoing of the brothers, has crossed into the United States during the last year, most likely by using false papers, agents say.

U.S. officials say the cartel, arguably the most powerful in Mexico, seems to have weathered the arrests by Mexican soldiers early last year of Jesus Labra and Ismael Higuera Guerrero. Labra is said to be a founder of the cartel, and Higuera, who faces U.S. charges, allegedly headed daily operations.

The arrests, during separate actions in March and May, were seen by U.S. authorities as serious blows to cartel leadership and the most promising sign of Mexico’s willingness to take on the organization that controls the lion’s share of narcotics smuggled into California.

Soon after, U.S. authorities unsealed federal charges against Benjamin Arellano Felix and appealed anew for help in locating 36-year-old Ramon, indicted and placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list in 1997. They and a third brother have been sought in Mexico in connection with the 1993 killing of Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo, slain in a shootout at Guadalajara’s airport.

But to the dismay of U.S. officials, the brothers have gone untouched. American officials say, however, that drug-smuggling operations were jolted by the arrests of Labra and Higuera.

“It’s thrown them off balance,” said a knowledgeable U.S. official. “They’re still in the business, but it did set them back a bit. They relied on [Higuera] for a lot of day-to-day operations.”

Mexico’s new president, Vicente Fox, has vowed a fresh offensive against crime syndicates, the Arellanos included. Fox told the daily newspaper Reforma last month that he would send 1,000 to 2,000 federal agents to Tijuana to “eradicate” the gang. That will hinge on a push to recruit as many as 15,000 additional federal police agents during the next six months to take on cartels and other crime groups.

Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, Fox’s national security advisor, told reporters to expect “some spectacular blows” against organized crime.

The Tijuana mob has outlived past threats, aided by payoffs, official incompetence and violence. A Mexican prosecutor and two anti-drug agents were tortured and killed last year during a hunt for the top cartel bosses. U.S. agents who worked with the trio said the investigators were closing in on the drug ring’s leaders before the agents’ bodies were found in a ravine outside Tijuana.

Mexican authorities last year attributed a spate of killings--including the shooting of Tijuana Police Chief Alfredo de la Torre Marquez--to a turf battle between the cartel and traffickers from Sinaloa state. Skeptical U.S. agents said the violence appeared instead to be the result of factional housecleaning inside the Tijuana cartel.

Things have quieted down since, leading U.S. officials to conclude that organized crime bosses smoothed over conflicts and returned to the lucrative business of moving cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine into the United States.

“Some arrangement has been made, because nobody’s dying over it,” Robinson said.

North of the border, about 30 U.S. agents--mainly from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs Service and Internal Revenue Service--follow up on tips to a toll-free hotline and from other sources.

Tipsters have placed the Arellanos in San Diego, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New Jersey, Minnesota, Spain, Central America and South America. There are what the agents call “Elvis sightings,” such as the report that Ramon was giving a religious talk at a Chula Vista church. It turned out to be someone with the same last name.

Agents said about 50 leads could be corroborated sufficiently to pursue.

Mexico has no similar hotline, and U.S. agents lack authority to carry out investigations there. Instead, they relay news of reported sightings of the brothers or associates in Mexico to Mexican investigators by way of the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. That approach relies on Mexican investigators, often undertrained and ill-equipped, to follow up. It also can be time-consuming.

“It’s a little more complicated than picking up the phone and calling the Tijuana police,” said John Blake, an FBI supervisor.

U.S. investigators say the success of the hunt depends in great part on Mexican authorities, whose past efforts have been spotty. A sticking point is Mexico’s traditional unwillingness to extradite drug lords for prosecution in U.S. courts.

The arrests of Labra and Higuera last year did not produce a quick capture of the Arellano Felix brothers, as some hoped. But the surprise actions remain a source of guarded optimism among U.S. agents.

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” said the U.S. official. “You can see in past apprehensions that things can be done. . . . We keep plugging away.”