MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – Mexico is offering $2.5 million for information leading to the capture of one of the country’s most wanted drug lords, but the search went awry when the government published a photo of the wrong man.
The photograph was splashed across the front pages of Mexican newspapers after authorities said they had obtained fresh images of Fernando Sanchez Arellano, known as “the Engineer,” the leader of the Arellano Felix cartel.
The snapshot — of a factory worker from Baja California, according to local media — was also posted this week on the Attorney General’s website listing the most sought-after capos and offering a reward of $2.5 million.
“There are instructions to remove the photograph from the website. It was a mistake … it is not him,” a spokesperson for Mexico’s Attorney General’s office said.
The gaffe is a stain on President Felipe Calderon’s efforts to improve investigations targeting the top brass of Mexico’s most dangerous drug gangs, which has brought about a clutch of killings or captures in top cartel ranks.
Local media said the mix-up stemmed from a joke that backfired, when friends of the factory worker posted a series of photos on YouTube titled “Pictures of the Engineer.”
An older headshot of the drug boss, who has a similar complexion and haircut as the worker, will replace the incorrect photo on the “most wanted” list, the spokesperson said.
The once powerful Arellano Felix cartel, based in Tijuana across from San Diego, has been weakened by attacks from rivals and security forces. After several of the Arellano Felix brothers, known for shipping tons of cocaine into California in the 1990s, were killed or arrested, their nephew Sanchez Arellano became the leader of the gang.
Police say he runs the cartel with the help of his accountant aunt, Enedina Arellano Felix, and is fighting a brutal battle with the Sinaloa Federation for control of lucrative smuggling routes into the United States.
