Reputed Drug Kingpin Arrives in U.S.

Authorities knew the alleged Mexican drug kingpin didn’t like to give up without a fight. In 1994, when police tried to arrest Francisco Javier Arellano Felix in Tijuana, a federal police commander and four other people died in a shootout that led to his escape.

So on Tuesday, as a U.S. Coast Guard vessel edged up to a fishing boat off the coast of Baja California, about 30 heavily armed Coast Guardsmen prepared for a potentially bloody encounter.

Instead, the alleged drug cartel leader let them board, and he and 10 others were escorted off the Dock Holiday without incident. On the two-day sail to San Diego, Arellano Felix’s son and nephew played video games while crew members kept a close watch on the stunned Arellano Felix.

“He was surprised,” said John S. Fernandes, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in San Diego. “They went out fishing, and they ended up being the fish.”

Despite Arellano Felix’s surrender, authorities weren’t taking any chances when he arrived here Thursday morning. Sharpshooters stood by as a police motorcade drove Arellano Felix, 36, from the port to a downtown federal detention facility.

At his afternoon arraignment, the gaunt-looking Arellano Felix -- still dressed in orange flip-flops -- grimly pressed his lips and nodded when his court-appointed attorney entered a not guilty plea to charges of smuggling, murder and conspiracy.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Leo S. Papas scheduled a bail hearing for Monday.

According to the indictment, filed in 2003, Arellano Felix is a member of an organization that during its height in the late 1990s was believed to be supplying nearly half the cocaine sold in the U.S. The cartel is blamed for scores of slayings of police officers, journalists and rivals, as well as the accidental killing of Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo at the Guadalajara airport in 1993.

U.S. and Mexican authorities, whose joint investigations have at times been marred by mistrust, held a news conference in San Diego, where they emphasized the close cooperation between the countries in the case.

Authorities, citing the ongoing investigation, released few details but said a key break in the three-year manhunt came four months ago when Mexican authorities shared information with DEA agents that Arellano Felix had bought a fishing boat.

Acting on a tip, U.S. authorities sent a Coast Guard vessel to intercept the boat in international waters off the tip of Baja California. Arellano Felix was apparently on a deep-sea fishing trip with three children, ages 5 to 11.

Among the seven men also aboard was Arturo Villarreal Heredia, an alleged assassin for the Arellano Felix cartel. Mexico’s attorney general, Daniel Cabeza de Vaca, said the men may have been heading for a meeting with other cartel members.

He said that drug kingpins at times stage meetings in international waters on U.S.-flagged vessels to avoid Mexican authorities.

The guardsmen on the U.S. Coast Guard vessel had prepared for all possible scenarios, said Rear Adm. Jody Breckenridge, commander of the 11th Coast Guard District. But when they boarded, the men surrendered without incident.

There were no drugs or weapons found, she said. On the way back to San Diego, the men were not handcuffed. There are no holding cells in the vessel, but the suspects were kept in a “controlled environment,” Breckenridge said.

The children chatted with crew members and played video games, she said. They have been flown to Mexico City, where a social service agency will care for them until family members claim custody.

When Arellano Felix saw the skyline of San Diego as they entered the harbor, she said the gravity of the situation appeared to “sink in” for him.

Cabeza de Vaca, in an interview in Mexico City, said it appeared that Arellano Felix had had facial plastic surgery to change his appearance. He said the alleged drug kingpin traveled routinely to San Diego under a false identity, and that the boat excursion started in the U.S.

Authorities could only speculate as to why one of Mexico’s most wanted men went down without a fight. Some said he didn’t want to endanger the lives of the children. Others said he may have grown tired of running and having a $5-million reward hanging over his head.

“Sometimes you’re just relieved that it’s over,” said Dan Simmons, a DEA spokesman in San Diego. “I wonder if he said to himself, ‘What’s the use?’ ”

Times staff writer Hector Tobar in Mexico City contributed to this report.