Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano (b. ca. 1977), commonly referred to by the alias El Ingeniero ("The Engineer"), is a Mexican suspected drug lord and former leader of the Tijuana Cartel, a

drug trafficking A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestion, ...

organization based in

Tijuana Tijuana is the most populous city of the Mexican state of Baja California, located on the northwestern Pacific Coast of Mexico. Tijuana is the municipal seat of the Tijuana Municipality, the hub of the Tijuana metropolitan area and the most popu ...

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

. He competed with three other major cartels, the

Juárez Cartel The Juárez Cartel (, ), also known as the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Organization, is a Mexican drug cartel based in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, across the Mexico—U.S. border from El Paso, Texas. The cartel is one of several drug trafficking ...

, the

Gulf Cartel The Gulf Cartel ( , or ''Golfos'') is a criminal syndicate, Drug cartel, drug trafficking organization, and U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, which is perhaps one of the oldest organized crime groups in Mexico. It is currently bas ...

, and the

Sinaloa Cartel The Sinaloa Cartel (, , after the native Sinaloa region), also known as the ''CDS'', the ''Guzmán-Loera Organization'', the ''Federation'', the ''Sinaloa Cartel'', or the Pacific Cartel, is a large, drug trafficking transnational organized cri ...

, for the illegal drug corridors into the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The Tijuana Cartel (or Arellano Félix Organization) has been described as one of the biggest and most violent criminal groups in Mexico. The Tijuana Cartel was initially composed of seven brothers and four sisters, who inherited the organization from

Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (born January 8, 1946), commonly referred to by his aliases ''El Jefe de Jefes'' ('The Boss of Bosses') and ''El Padrino'' ('The Godfather'), is a convicted Mexican drug kingpin who was one of the founders of the ...

upon his incarceration in Mexico in 1989 for his complicity in the murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique Camarena. Following the death or arrest of the Arellano Félix family members, and especially following the arrest of his uncle Eduardo Arellano Félix on October 25, 2008, Luis Fernando Sánchez took the cartel leadership. He is the son of Alicia María Arellano Félix and not Enedina Arellano Félix as is often reported. He remained head of the Tijuana Cartel until he was arrested and imprisoned in Mexico in June 2014.

Sánchez Arellano lieutenants

On November 7, 2011, Juan Francisco Sillas Rocha, nicknamed ''El Sillas'' and ''La Rueda'', was captured by the Mexican Army in the border city of

. He was the second-in-command in the Tijuana cartel, and considered by Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional as "one of the most violent" drug traffickers in Mexico, responsible for a number of murders. Sillas Rocha, under the tutelage of Sánchez Arellano, fought

Teodoro García Simental Teodoro García Simental (a.k.a.: ''El Teo'' and ''El Tres Letras'', born 1974) is a former drug lord and lieutenant of the Mexican criminal organization known as the Tijuana Cartel, and later allied with the Sinaloa Cartel. He was arrested b ...

(''El Teo'') for the control of the criminal activities in Tijuana between 2008 and 2010. He is also accused of kidnapping three women who were relatives of Ismael Zambada García (''El Mayo''), a drug baron of the Sinaloa cartel. Sillas Rocha was believed to be retaliating for the disappearance of his sister in 2010.

Bounty

The

Attorney General of Mexico The attorney general of the Republic is the head of the Attorney General's Office (; prior to 2019, ) and the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office of the United Mexican States, an institution belonging to the Federal Government's constitutional ...

offered a $30 million peso (US$2.5 million) bounty for information leading to his arrest.

Arrest

At around 16:00 local time on June 23, 2014, Sánchez Arellano was arrested by soldiers of the

Mexican Army The Mexican Army () is the combined Army, land and Air Force, air branch and is the largest part of the Mexican Armed Forces; it is also known as the National Defense Army. The Army is under the authority of the Secretariat of National Defense o ...

and federal agents of the Procuraduría General de la República (PGR) at a

Carl's Jr. Carl's Jr. Restaurants LLC is an American fast-food restaurant chain store, chain owned by CKE Restaurants, CKE Restaurant Holdings, Inc., who also owns Hardee's, with franchisees in North and South America, Asia, Oceania, Europe, and Africa. ...

fast food restaurant in the

Mesa de Otay Otay Centenario is a borough of the municipality of Tijuana in Baja California, Mexico. It is the result of a merger between the former boroughs of Mesa de Otay and Centenario which took place on January 1, 2014. The borough is located east of ...

borough in Tijuana, Baja California, while watching the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

game between Mexico and Croatia. Sánchez Arellano was wearing the Mexico national team jersey and had the team's colors painted on his face. The arrest was made without a single shot fired. The security forces also confiscated US$100,000 he had with him at the moment of his arrest. The following day, he was transferred to the SEIDO installations, Mexico's organized crime investigatory agency, in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

to give his statement and be interrogated by law enforcement. The Mexican government accused Sánchez Arellano of being involved in organized crime, drug trafficking, and of violating Mexico's Federal Law of Firearms and Explosives. Authorities also believed he was responsible for several extortions, kidnappings, and homicides in the Baja California municipalities of

, Playas de Rosarito,

Tecate Tecate () is a city in Tecate Municipality, Baja California. It is across the Mexico–United States border, Mexico–US border from Tecate, California. As of 2019, the city had a population of 108,860 inhabitants, while the metropolitan area ha ...

and Ensenada. On 25 June 2014, the PGR's Agency of Criminal Investigation (Spanish: ''Agencia de Investigación Criminal'') officially confirmed the identity of Sánchez Arellano using DNA testing and photograph comparisons. The agency used the DNA samples the government had on its database of his relatives who were also involved in organized crime: his uncles Ramón, Benjamín, and Francisco Rafael Arellano Félix, along with his alleged mother Enedina. The results showed that Sánchez Arellano is biologically related to them and the Arellano Félix crime family, as initially presumed by law enforcement. In addition, the agency used at least five photographs law enforcement had of Sánchez Arellano to confirm similarities in its facial features. The images analyzed corresponded to one that circulated on the Internet, one that was from an I.D. card the drug lord took at Sam's Club under the alias Fernando Canalles Villanueva, one from his Baja California driver's license under the name Fernando Canales Villanueva, one from his passport under the name Fernando Canales Villanueva, one from the DEA's database, and the one taken during his arrest.

Imprisonment and trial

On 27 June 2014, Sánchez Arellano was transferred to the Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 1 (also known as "Altiplano") maximum-security prison in Almoloya de Juárez, State of Mexico. The imprisonment was allowed after a federal court found sufficient evidence against him. Three days later, a federal court in

Toluca Toluca , officially Toluca de Lerdo , is the States of Mexico, state capital of the State of Mexico as well as the seat of the Municipality of Toluca. Toluca has a population of 910,608 as of the 2020 census. The city forms the core of the Grea ...

sent his trial to motion for his alleged criminal activities.

Sources

Footnotes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arellano, Luis Fernando Sanchez Luis Fernando Luis Fernando Fugitives wanted by the United States Fugitives wanted on organised crime charges Inmates of the Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 1 Living people Mexican drug traffickers People from Tijuana Tijuana Cartel traffickers Year of birth missing (living people) 1970s births