Mexico drug slayings show cartel's woes

TIJUANA, Mexico, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- The slayings of 57 gang members in Tijuana, Mexico, in recent weeks is a sign of the breakup of the city's Arellano Felix drug organization, authorities say.

The Tijuana cartel, named for the Arellano Felix brothers, has ruled the city's lucrative drug trafficking business for two decades, but is now fractured and facing deadly attacks from other contenders, The Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

"We are now seeing the tail end" of the Arellano Felix organization, John Kirby, a former federal prosecutor in San Diego, told the newspaper. "They're losing what was left of their grip on Baja California."

Law enforcement observers said the gang is under siege from alleged trafficker Ismael Zambada, known as Mexico's most-wanted man, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa cartel.

Others however, told the Times that elements of the Arellano Felix organization remain very much intact, with some of its most active hit men still roaming Mexico and the United States.

"Old cartels don't seem to go away; they just seem to morph into new variants over time," said David Shirk, director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego.