The Boss and Her Nephew Return

According to official records, she will turn 65 this April 2026. There are not many images of her, except for those taken in her youth in the 1980s, when she posed with her large family; or one of her wedding day, dressed in white and adorned with a tiara and veil.

In contrast to the low profile she has maintained to keep her current physical appearance unknown, and to prevent scrutiny of her business dealings, she is notable for being the only one of the nine siblings who, despite the accusations, hasn’t been investigated, prosecuted, or sanctioned in either Mexico or the United States.

And under these very circumstances, Enedina Arellano Félix is ​​back in Tijuana.

A “businesswoman” since the heyday of the cartel founded by her brothers Benjamín and Ramón Arellano Félix, and which bears their surname, investigators have primarily linked her to money laundering, the legitimization of illicit funds, and social and business connections. Evidently, she possesses a certain degree of skill, given that investigations have failed to connect her name to any network dedicated to money laundering.

Enedina Arellano Félix, it is said, has been shrewd. In Baja California, she is remembered as the mastermind behind a thriving business selling controlled and uncontrolled medications, as well as other miscellaneous goods, through pharmacies like Farmacias Vida. Later, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, she was involved in the real estate business, and together with her mother, she managed to recover the properties that the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) had seized from them in that state and in Baja California during the first half of the 1990s.

The latest information about her businesses in Guadalajara indicates that she invested in food production, accumulating several branches. But a few months ago, with several former members of the Arellano Félix Cartel (CAF) released from prisons in the United States and Mexico, she decided to return to the land where her brothers built a drug and crime empire: Tijuana, Baja California.

Enedina Arellano Félix has survived the murders of two of her brothers; first, that of Ramón Arellano Félix, the most violent of them all, who was killed near the Mazatlán carnival in February 2002, when a police officer, alerted to his presence, attempted to stop him, and they clashed. Both the drug lord and the officer, Ángel Antonio Arias Torres, died from gunshot wounds.

Eleven years later, on October 18, 2013, Francisco Rafael Arellano Félix was celebrating his birthday at a hotel in Baja California Sur, surrounded by family, friends, and celebrities from the entertainment and sports worlds. While listening to the music that enlivened the party, a clown walked among the guests; with brightly colored clothing, a wig, and the classic red ball nose, he didn’t seem out of place at the celebration, until he approached the main table and shot the eldest of the Arellano clan, taking his life.

It was later revealed that the man disguised as a clown was a notorious hitman for the Sinaloa Cartel, José Rodrigo Aréchiga Gamboa, “El Chino Ántrax,” a criminal leader of the armed wing of Ismael Zambada García, “El Mayo,” in 2013, and also prone to dazzling luxury, foreign travel, and associating with national and international celebrities. In December of that same year, he was arrested in the Netherlands; he was extradited to the United States and murdered in Mexico in May 2020.

Enedina, who has been identified as part of the financial structure of the Arellano Félix Cartel, has also survived the arrest and extradition to the United States of three of her brothers. A month after Ramón’s death, Benjamín Arellano Félix was arrested in a residential area of ​​Puebla where he was hiding with his immediate family. The head of the criminal empire had been apprehended in an investigation by military and federal agents. Today, at 73 years old, he is serving a sentence in the United States. Four years later, in August 2006, Enedina’s youngest brother, Francisco Javier Arellano Félix, “El Tigrillo,” was arrested by the United States Coast Guard in international waters, near the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula. Although the yacht he was traveling on had departed from San Diego, California, the U.S. government waited until it was on the high seas to apprehend him and his accomplices.

At that time, El Tigrillo was leading the Arellano Félix Cartel after the death of Ramón and the arrest and extradition of Benjamín. He did so alongside Arturo Villarreal Heredia, “El Nalgón,” who handled the operational aspects, and, according to authorities, with the advice of his sister Enedina Arellano in the financial area.

After that arrest, for which Francisco Javier Arellano Félix is ​​serving a sentence in the United States, intelligence reports from Mexico and the United States analyzed that the cartel, even weakened and destabilized by the deaths and arrests, continued its criminal activities, now under the leadership of Enedina and Eduardo Arellano Félix, “El Doctor,” and the criminal operations of their nephew, Fernando Sánchez Arellano, “El Ingeniero” and/or “El Alineador.”

The Doctor’s reign was short-lived. In October 2008, Eduardo Arellano Félix was arrested after a confrontation in which he barricaded himself in the house he occupied in a residential area of ​​Tijuana. He was subsequently extradited to the United States and served a sentence, just like his brothers Benjamín and Francisco Javier. Once his sentence was completed, he was deported to Mexico, where he remains behind bars today.

According to investigators, Enedina Arellano Félix and Fernando Sánchez Arellano continued to pull the strings of the CAF. This continued until June 23, 2014, when, in a joint operation between Mexican and U.S. authorities in Tijuana, El Ingeniero was arrested. Once again, “La Jefa,” (The Boss) as she is nicknamed, was left alone.

Due to the mysteries of Mexican law and the ruling of the Fourteenth District Judge based in Baja California, on December 25, 2023, Fernando Sánchez Arellano received his freedom as a Christmas present, and despite a new arrest warrant being issued against him, authorities haven’t t managed to capture him. He, like his aunt, is back in Tijuana.

According to investigators on both sides of the California border, both aunt and nephew have rejoined the operations of the CAF, which has remained active through old members, their heirs, and some new recruits, all with a certain admiration for the criminal organization, as well as through mafia alliances with other cartels, such as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The Jefa and the Engineer, they explained, are once again operating in Tijuana with the business structure that the CAF’s founders established, assigning territories to criminal cells and forging relationships with other mafias.

The survivor, Enedina Arellano Félix, who has never been investigated, is once again on the radar of intelligence agencies, though not of law enforcement. She now resides in one of the city’s most traditional neighborhoods and is involved in various businesses, including used auto parts stores. Little is known about the Aligner, but they insist: the Jefa (Boss) and her nephew are back in Tijuana.

Source: Zeta Tijuana