Francisco Rafael Arellano Félix

Who was Francisco Rafael Arellano Félix?

Francisco Rafael Arellano Félix was a Mexican drug lord and former leader of the Tijuana Cartel, a drug trafficking organization. He was the oldest of seven brothers and headed the criminal organization early in the 1990s alongside them. Through his brother Benjamín, Francisco Rafael joined the Tijuana Cartel in 1989 following the arrest of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, one of the most prominent drug czars in Mexico during the 1980s. When the Arellano Félix took control of the organization in the early 1990s, tensions with the rival Sinaloa Cartel prompted violent attacks and slayings from both fronts.

The drug lord was arrested in 1993 in Tijuana, Baja California, and imprisoned at Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 1, a maximum security prison. In 2006, he was extradited to the United States pending charges on drug trafficking in a California federal district court. He was released from prison two years later and deported back to Mexico. Back in his home country, Francisco Rafael had no other pending criminal charges. While celebrating his birthday in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, on 18 October 2013, a gunman disguised as a clown shot him dead.