This is big news around San Diego, and it may have national implications.
Francisco Arellano-Felix pleaded guilty in federal court just a little while ago. In exchange (so far as is known), government took the death penalty off the table.
Sorry its from the Union-Tribune
This is probably a relief to everyone down at the federal courthouse in San Diego. That place has been under extraordinary security since he was first brought to court. Not only did every other courtroom on the same floor go "dark" on the days he had appearances, he had his own floor in the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
While the U-T article says he was a drug kingpin for the last 15 years, it goes back much farther than that. The Arellano-Felix family has been in the organized crime business for as long as I can remember. They just got more famous after the cocaine business became so wildly profitable in the 1980s. Before that, the money may have been smaller, but their tactics were just as harsh and brutal.
I attended one hearing for Mr. A-F a few months back, when I was showing some foreign lawyers a little of the U.S. court system. It was a very tense situation. Besides my two students and me, there were two or three other people in the gallery, and I think they were news reporters. There must have been at least 20 U.S. Marshals in that courtroom along with us, the judge, the defendant, and the attorneys. In spite of all that, I don't think anyone felt safe; Arellano-Felix has a lot of enemies.
If only a part of what people say about him is true, then he is about the most dangerous guy you'd ever see. As an example of A-F's style of "business," his cartel is credited with the daring daylight assassination of Tijuana's police chief - his motorcade was attacked and the assassins used military style ordinance to blast him through the bullet-proof glass and doors of his Suburban. They had no regard for anyone watching, and made no effort to conceal their faces, yet no one ever identified anyone, or even claimed to have seen anything at all.
Still, it's a little disappointing. I was expecting to see a really big trial, and see some of the top-gun criminal lawyers do their work.
The interesting part to me is that I cannot believe the government would take the death penalty away simply for a plea; I have to think there is a lot more to the plea bargain than that. At this point we can only speculate as to whom Francisco will "finger." There are very few people more dangerous or important in the crime world, so I have a feeling that he may be turning on some important high business or political figures, and not necessarily Mexican ones. There could be some really interesting things to come.