Francisco Rafael Arellano Félix was the leader of the Tijuana Cartel, the one that controls the drug trade on the Mexican and U.S. border. He was caught in 1993 and had to give up his empire, but his sister Enedina took over while he was incarcerated. Currently, the cartel is run by her son Fernando, who is also known as "The Engineer." The former drug lord was released from prison in 2008. The Tijuana cartel is still a huge part in the drug world and has reportedly claimed more than 60,000 lives since 2006. So it comes as no surprise that Arellano Félix was murdered. When you run the most dangerous business in the world, your head will always have a price tag.
However, Arellano Félix felt comfortable, he said he had been officially out of the drug business for five years, starting as soon as he was released from jail, so he didn't really had an entourage watching his back 24/7. That's why many think killing him was an easy job. He was accessible. It all happened Oct. 18, when the former drug kingpin was celebrating his upcoming 64th birthday, which was Oct. 24. In a party at a terrace with over 100 guests, among them Jared Borgetti and Omar Chávez, Luis Antonio López, known as "El Mimoso," from "Banda El Recodo" was performing along with Mariachi "Los Cabos," when a man dressed as a clown walked by him in a hurry towards Arellano Félix.
In a leaked video recorded by one partygoer on his phone, the clown, dressed in an electric blue outfit and a purple wig rushes over to the former drug lord and all of the sudden a shot is heard. The party seems to continue unaltered, until three more shots are heard, creating a major frenzy and chaos. It was reported that the killer ran over to a car that was waiting for him, drove to the beach and hopped on a boat. Francisco Rafael Arellano Félix's murder is still under investigation and no suspects have been named. The motives behind the murder case are officially unknown, however, Mexican authorities believe that given the circumstances and the people involved, the suspected source of fire was organized crime and that the motives possibly stemmed from "unpaid old debts, and old retributions."
Authorities are working with two separate lines of investigation: the first one alleges that Arellano Félix was killed by members of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel, who is fighting for the control of the smuggling routes in the Baja California peninsula against the Sinaloa Cartel. The second line alleges that the kingpin was killed by members of the Sinaloa Cartel, specifically on orders of "El Chapo" Guzmán.
Apparently, "El Chapo" was nearly captured by the Mexican federal police back in March, 2012 after an anonymous call informed the DEA that the drug lord was possibility hiding in three properties. Investigators allege that Arellano Félix, although he was no longer involved in organized crime, might have tipped the authorities to his whereabouts, which infuriated "El Chapo." They also believe that the attack might have been carried out by a local drug-dealing group in Los Cabos; with the main suspect of this allegation being Javier López Rivera or Javier Acosta López.
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