Cartel leader Benjamin Arellano Felix was one of the world's most powerful drug bosses during the 1990s
SAN DIEGO -- Mexican drug kingpin Benjamin Arellano Felix pleaded guilty Wednesday to racketeering and conspiracy to launder money, avoiding the spectacle of a trial for the leader of a cartel that once smuggled hundreds of tons of cocaine and marijuana into the United States and dissolved bodies of its rivals in vats of lye.
Under an agreement with federal prosecutors, Arellano Felix, 58, can be sentenced to no more than 25 years in prison -- a lighter punishment than ordered for lower-ranking members of his once-mighty, Tijuana-based cartel. He also agreed to forfeit $100 million in profits.
Prosecutors agreed to dismiss other charges that could have brought 140 years in prison if he was convicted.
The half-hour hearing was an anticlimactic finish to the U.S. government's pursuit of one of the world's most powerful drug bosses during the 1990s.
Continue Reading: msnbc.com
SAN DIEGO -- Mexican drug kingpin Benjamin Arellano Felix pleaded guilty Wednesday to racketeering and conspiracy to launder money, avoiding the spectacle of a trial for the leader of a cartel that once smuggled hundreds of tons of cocaine and marijuana into the United States and dissolved bodies of its rivals in vats of lye.
Under an agreement with federal prosecutors, Arellano Felix, 58, can be sentenced to no more than 25 years in prison -- a lighter punishment than ordered for lower-ranking members of his once-mighty, Tijuana-based cartel. He also agreed to forfeit $100 million in profits.
Prosecutors agreed to dismiss other charges that could have brought 140 years in prison if he was convicted.
The half-hour hearing was an anticlimactic finish to the U.S. government's pursuit of one of the world's most powerful drug bosses during the 1990s.
Continue Reading: msnbc.com
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