Pubdate: Sun, 09 Jul 2000 Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA) Copyright: 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. Contact: PO Box 120191, San Diego, CA, 92112-0191 Fax: (619) 293-1440 Website: http://www.uniontrib.com/ Forum: http://www.uniontrib.com/cgi-bin/WebX Author: Robert Caldwell, Insight Editor Note: Part 4 of a 6 part special report on the Arellano Felix Cartel A CHRONOLOGY OF CRIME Key Events And Dates In The History Of The Drug-trafficking Cartel Known As The Arellano Felix Organization: 1989: Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, a kingpin among Mexico's major drug traffickers, is imprisoned. His empire is divided into the Sinaloa cartel and the Tijuana cartel. The Arellano brothers, his former lieutenants, take the Tijuana operation. May 24, 1993: A bungled assassination attempt by Arellano cartel gunmen against rival drug trafficker Joaquin Guzman Loera at the Guadalajara airport kills Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo, whose car was reportedly mistaken for Guzman's. March 3, 1994: A gun battle in Tijuana pits Mexican federal drug agents against members of the Baja California State Judicial Police acting as bodyguards for cartel principal Javier Arellano Felix. Five people are killed, including a federal police commander. April 28, 1994: Tijuana Police Chief Federico Benitez Lopez is assassinated in a highway ambush. He had reportedly rejected a six-figure bribe offer from the Arellano Felix cartel. Sept. 14, 1996: Ernesto Ibarra Santes, Baja director of the Federal Judicial Police, is assassinated, along with two drug agents and a taxi driver, in Mexico City after arriving on a flight from Tijuana. Ibarra is the sixth member of the attorney general's office in Baja to be murdered that year. Two Arellano gunmen are later charged with the murders. March 17, 1997: Gen. Luis Chavez Garcia, commander of the Federal Judicial Police in Baja California, reports that the Arellano Felix Organization offered him a $1 million-a-month bribe to allow drugs to flow north across the U.S. border. Brig. Gen. Alfredo Navarro Lara is arrested on bribery charges after reportedly threatening Chavez and his family with death if he rejected the bribe. Sept. 24, 1997: Federal grand jury in San Diego indicts Ramon Arellano Felix on drug trafficking and related charges. The FBI adds him to its 10-Most-Wanted List. Nov. 8, 1997: Everardo Arturo Paez Martinez, alleged lieutenant in the Arellano Felix Organization, is arrested in Tijuana and jailed in Mexico City. Paez is under indictment in the United States for drug trafficking and the United States subsequently requests his extradition. A Mexican judge blocks the extradition and the matter is currently being reviewed by Mexico's supreme court. Nov. 14, 1997: Two Mexican federal police agents are shot to death in their vehicle parked outside the federal courthouse in Tijuana minutes after their court testimony. Arellano gunmen suspected. Nov. 27, 1997: Arellano cartel assassins ambush Jesus Blancornelas, co-editor of the Tijuana weekly newspaper Zeta, which crusades against drug trafficking and corruption and had just named two men alleged to have been cartel assassins. Blancornelas is seriously wounded and his driver/bodyguard is killed. Also killed is David Barron Corona, a top Arellano cartel assassin, former member of the Logan 30s street gang in San Diego and later an Arellano recruiter of other Logan 30s members for the cartel's security force of hired guns. Feb. 10, 1998: U.S. federal grand jury indicts 10 San Diego gang members on conspiracy charges that link them to the Arellano Felix cartel and to the murder of Cardinal Posadas. Sept. 17, 1998: Gunmen kill 19 members of three families, including women and children, at a rural compound near Ensenada. Later evidence attributes the slaughter to settling a drug debt and links the killers to the Arellano Felix Organization. May-June 1999: DEA/FBI "Operation Crosswire" results in the arrest of Sergio Rubalcava Sandoval, former Baja California Judicial Police commander, on federal drug-trafficking charges and indictments or arrests of 16 others. FBI subsequently announces arrest of 10 drug traffickers associated with the Arellano Felix Organization. March 12, 2000: Jesus "Chuy" Labra Aviles, reputed financial adviser and manager for the Arellano Felix cartel, is arrested in Tijuana and taken to Mexico City, where he is put under house arrest. His Tijuana lawyer is found murdered three days later in Mexico City. Labra is subsequently jailed on formal criminal charges. April 11, 2000: Jose "Pepe" Patino Moreno and two other Mexican drug agents are found dead near their wrecked car in a ravine beside the Tecate-Mexicali highway. Subsequent investigation shows that they were abducted, tortured and murdered. Patino and his fellow agents had been working with the FBI and DEA investigating the Arellano Felix cartel. May 3, 2000: Ismael Higuera Guerrero, alleged top lieutenant and operations director of the Arellano Felix Organization, is captured by Mexican soldiers and police after a gunfight at a villa outside Ensenada, according to Mexican officials. Other accounts dispute important details of the capture. May 11, 2000: U.S. Attorney Gregory A. Vega announces the unsealing of indictments charging Benjamin and Ramon Arellano Felix with 10 counts of drug trafficking, money laundering and aiding and abetting crimes of violence. The U.S. State Department offers rewards of up to $2 million each for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Benjamin and Ramon. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D