Tijuana: CAF member arrested

CAF member arrested

Amidst escalating violence in Tijuana, as organized crime groups, mostly represented by retail distribution cells, feeding the cities crystal meth and heroin addicts, another member of what remains of the Arellano Felix dynasty is arrested.

It should be noted that all official and mostly unofficial reports indicate that after the arrest of Fernando Sanchez Arellano, last summer, there are no more Arellano Felix family members active in the business. One wonders where that leaves Endenina Arellano Felix, but, in any case she is a lifetime away from the day to day arrests, killings, and sales that drive the violence in Tijuana.

An easy way to put it: there is not thought to be any more Arellano Felix cartel in Tijuana, but there is a Cartel de Tijuana, which is former or currents cell leaders and cells who are loyal to their own, and antagonistic to those representing the Sinaloa Cartel, mostly under Aquiles. They control retail drug areas, extortions, kidnappings, in their areas of influence. Some traffic on a transnational level, but this has been very much diminished in the years after Javier Francisco Arellano Felix was arrested in 2006.

Arturo Rojas Alocer 'Nodo' fits into this new subset of organized crime, a cell leader or someone of some prominence, displaced in recent years. He is 37 years old, and according to reports maintains a series of aliases and false identifies. He is thought to lead a retail drug cell in the city. Aloccer has a warrant for homicide at the time of his arrest.

'Nodo' was arrested while seeking medical treatment from unknown injuries that occurred during a gunfight, or other conflict with a rival group. In the weeks since the killing of 'El Mono', a wave of shootings and killings descended upon the already violent retail trade.

Sources: AFN Tijuana