Armed with a sealed indictment, U.S. officials stepped up the pressure Wednesday on Mexico's most violent drug kingpin by offering a $2 million reward and adding him to the FBI's most-wanted list.
Ramon Arellano Felix, 33, the head of security for a gang run by five brothers, is charged with drug conspiracy in a sealed federal indictment, officials said Tuesday."He and his associates are also responsible for directing numerous murders in Mexico and the United States," Drug Enforcement Administration Thomas Constantine said in a prepared statement Wednesday. And he sets the price of cocaine and methamphetamine in many communities throughout the United States, Constantine added.
"The inclusion of Ramon on the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives list demonstrates that federal law enforcement is deeply committed to targeting the highest levels of the international drug trade," he said.
Details of those charges may be made public Wednesday.
The DEA said it hopes the move will help "demythologize" international drug traffickers.
A DEA official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the large bounty could also prompt Ramon to question the loyalty of his guards, who get paid $1,000 a month and might be willing "to sell him out for $2 million."
The Arellano Felix gang, headed by Ramon's 43-year-old brother Benjamin, controls the smuggling of tons of cocaine and marijuana and large quantities of heroin and methamphetamines into California from the Tijuana area.