A CHRONOLOGY OF CRIME

Key Events And Dates In The History Of The Drug-trafficking Cartel Known As
The Arellano Felix Organization:

1989: Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, a kingpin among Mexico's major drug
traffickers, is imprisoned. His empire is divided into the Sinaloa cartel
and the Tijuana cartel. The Arellano brothers, his former lieutenants, take
the Tijuana operation.

May 24, 1993: A bungled assassination attempt by Arellano cartel gunmen
against rival drug trafficker Joaquin Guzman Loera at the Guadalajara
airport kills Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo, whose car
was reportedly mistaken for Guzman's.

March 3, 1994: A gun battle in Tijuana pits Mexican federal drug agents
against members of the Baja California State Judicial Police acting as
bodyguards for cartel principal Javier Arellano Felix. Five people are
killed, including a federal police commander.

April 28, 1994: Tijuana Police Chief Federico Benitez Lopez is assassinated
in a highway ambush. He had reportedly rejected a six-figure bribe offer
from the Arellano Felix cartel.

Sept. 14, 1996: Ernesto Ibarra Santes, Baja director of the Federal
Judicial Police, is assassinated, along with two drug agents and a taxi
driver, in Mexico City after arriving on a flight from Tijuana. Ibarra is
the sixth member of the attorney general's office in Baja to be murdered
that year. Two Arellano gunmen are later charged with the murders.

March 17, 1997: Gen. Luis Chavez Garcia, commander of the Federal Judicial
Police in Baja California, reports that the Arellano Felix Organization
offered him a $1 million-a-month bribe to allow drugs to flow north across
the U.S. border. Brig. Gen. Alfredo Navarro Lara is arrested on bribery
charges after reportedly threatening Chavez and his family with death if he
rejected the bribe.

Sept. 24, 1997: Federal grand jury in San Diego indicts Ramon Arellano
Felix on drug trafficking and related charges. The FBI adds him to its
10-Most-Wanted List.

Nov. 8, 1997: Everardo Arturo Paez Martinez, alleged lieutenant in the
Arellano Felix Organization, is arrested in Tijuana and jailed in Mexico
City. Paez is under indictment in the United States for drug trafficking
and the United States subsequently requests his extradition. A Mexican
judge blocks the extradition and the matter is currently being reviewed by
Mexico's supreme court.

Nov. 14, 1997: Two Mexican federal police agents are shot to death in their
vehicle parked outside the federal courthouse in Tijuana minutes after
their court testimony. Arellano gunmen suspected.

Nov. 27, 1997: Arellano cartel assassins ambush Jesus Blancornelas,
co-editor of the Tijuana weekly newspaper Zeta, which crusades against drug
trafficking and corruption and had just named two men alleged to have been
cartel assassins. Blancornelas is seriously wounded and his
driver/bodyguard is killed. Also killed is David Barron Corona, a top
Arellano cartel assassin, former member of the Logan 30s street gang in San
Diego and later an Arellano recruiter of other Logan 30s members for the
cartel's security force of hired guns.

Feb. 10, 1998: U.S. federal grand jury indicts 10 San Diego gang members on
conspiracy charges that link them to the Arellano Felix cartel and to the
murder of Cardinal Posadas.

Sept. 17, 1998: Gunmen kill 19 members of three families, including women
and children, at a rural compound near Ensenada. Later evidence attributes
the slaughter to settling a drug debt and links the killers to the Arellano
Felix Organization.

May-June 1999: DEA/FBI "Operation Crosswire" results in the arrest of
Sergio Rubalcava Sandoval, former Baja California Judicial Police
commander, on federal drug-trafficking charges and indictments or arrests
of 16 others. FBI subsequently announces arrest of 10 drug traffickers
associated with the Arellano Felix Organization.

March 12, 2000: Jesus "Chuy" Labra Aviles, reputed financial adviser and
manager for the Arellano Felix cartel, is arrested in Tijuana and taken to
Mexico City, where he is put under house arrest. His Tijuana lawyer is
found murdered three days later in Mexico City. Labra is subsequently
jailed on formal criminal charges.

April 11, 2000: Jose "Pepe" Patino Moreno and two other Mexican drug agents
are found dead near their wrecked car in a ravine beside the
Tecate-Mexicali highway. Subsequent investigation shows that they were
abducted, tortured and murdered. Patino and his fellow agents had been
working with the FBI and DEA investigating the Arellano Felix cartel.

May 3, 2000: Ismael Higuera Guerrero, alleged top lieutenant and operations
director of the Arellano Felix Organization, is captured by Mexican
soldiers and police after a gunfight at a villa outside Ensenada, according
to Mexican officials. Other accounts dispute important details of the capture.

May 11, 2000: U.S. Attorney Gregory A. Vega announces the unsealing of
indictments charging Benjamin and Ramon Arellano Felix with 10 counts of
drug trafficking, money laundering and aiding and abetting crimes of
violence. The U.S. State Department offers rewards of up to $2 million each
for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Benjamin and Ramon.