Mexican Drug Baron Gets 25 Years

SAN DIEGO (CN) - Benjamin Arellano-Felix, the former boss of the Arellano-Felix drug cartel, was sentenced Monday to 25 years in federal prison and ordered to forfeit $100 million he made from his drug empire, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Arellano-Felix, 59, pleaded guilty in January to racketeering and conspiring to launder monetary instruments.

His Tijuana-based drug cartel was one of the hemisphere's most vicious, until it was eclipsed by the virtual civil war that still rages among Mexico's drug rings, its army and police forces, which are fighting for control of the drug trade.

Arellano-Felix was arrested in Mexico in March 2002, and appealed his 2007 final order of extradition to the United States for years, until he arrived here in April 2011.

He pleaded guilty on Jan. 4.

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