SAN DIEGO, (Reuters) – Former Mexican drug lord Eduardo Arellano Felix, the last of four brothers captured or killed in connection with a once-powerful Tijuana-based cartel depicted in the Oscar-winning film “Traffic,” pleaded guilty to U.S. drug charges yesterday.
Arellano Felix, 56, admitted in U.S. District Court in San Diego to one count of conspiring to launder hundreds of millions of dollars in drug proceeds and one count of conspiring to invest that money for the cartel’s benefit.
Under his plea deal, federal prosecutors will recommend that he serve 15 years in U.S. prison and then be deported to Mexico. Sentencing was set for Aug. 19, ending a criminal prosecution of the Arellano Felix family by U.S. authorities that began in 1997.
Eduardo Arellano Felix had faced a maximum sentence of 140 years if convicted of the charges brought against him in an indictment, including racketeering and conspiracy to distribute and import marijuana and cocaine to the United States.
The indictment described him as a “senior adviser” to his brother Benjamin, the former cartel chief who pleaded guilty in January 2012 to drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Looking pale and subdued, Eduardo Arellano Felix admitted in court to handling money and directing payments, including bribes, but denied having anything to do with the violence and day-to-day smuggling decisions of the cartel.
“I was there,” the former medical doctor said in Spanish through an interpreter. “I just talked to my brother Benjamin. He did that, I didn’t.”
Defense lawyer Brian Funk characterized his client as having lived as a recluse in the years before the downfall of the crime family and his capture in 2008, saying Eduardo Arellano Felix’s role in the cartel was confined to directing its money-laundering operations.
“Benjamin would ignore his advice, from what (Eduardo) told me,” Funk said.
As part of the plea agreement entered in court on Friday, Eduardo Arellano Felix agreed to forfeit $50 million in proceeds, though prosecutors say they have not identified where the money and assets are held.
The Arellano Felix organization controlled the drug trade from its base in Tijuana, south of San Diego, between 1986 and 2002.
