The Head of the Snake

Javier Arellano-Felix got picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard today. If you remember the movie Traffic, the cartel leader played by Benjamin Bratt seemed to be based on one of the Arellano-Felix brothers. He’s probably the biggest drug kingpin in Mexico and this will cause a lot of interesting fallout in that country, especially since he’s the last member of the family capable of running the organization (there is a fourth brother still free whom Fox News says isn’t up to the job—I get the impression of Fredo Corleone type. On the other hand, there’s a $5million reward for him, so he must be somewhat competent.)

Traffic, for those of you who remember it, followed some events of the Mexican inter-cartel rivalry quite closely, as this Frontline report suggests.

The Tijuana-based Arellano Felix Organization is notable for digging large-scale tunnels under the U.S. border to smuggle in every kind of drug from all over the world. They are murderers and corruptors and threats to our security. This BBC article points out that his organization is wanted for over a hundred murders, and also that he was able to get arrested in Mexico in 2004 yet get free within a month. Brother Benjamin is said to have killed a DEA informant by crushing his head in a vice. Mexico and the United States are much better off with him in custody.

Doomsayers will say that someone will take his place soon. Yes, but that someone is going to have his work cut out for him establishing a network as successful and vast as the AFO’s. In the short term this will mean more violence in Mexico as the succession is settled, but in the long term the new organization that emerges may lack the resources and influence that the AFO had. The BBC article notes that the capture of Benjamin and the shooting of Ramon, the enforcer, began to weaken the organization back in 2002, so you can’t tell me taking talented and knowledgeable people out of any organization doesn’t hurt it.

Good work, DEA. Keep it up.