Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix, former head of the Tijuana drug cartel, had been held at the El Paso immigration detention center since Feb. 2 after completing his sentence on drug charges at a federal prison, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Leticia Zamarripa told the El Paso Times .

At a hearing before an immigration judge on Monday, Arellano Felix was ordered deported to his native Mexico, Zamarripa told the paper.

ICE officers on Tuesday escorted the former cartel kingpin to the Stanton Street Bridge where he was handed over to Mexican immigration officers and agents of the Mexican attorney general's office, the Times reported.

Unnamed government sources in Mexico told the San Diego Union-Tribune that Arellano Felix was freed because he had no pending charges in Mexico, the Times said.

6:50am 3/6/08 -- Tijuana Drug Kingpin Deported from El Paso: Arellano Felix walks into Juarez just weeks after starting 6-year U.S. sentence.

Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix, who was sentenced last year in San Diego to a six-year sentence on federal cocaine charges, was released on parole this week and was deported to Mexico from El Paso on Tuesday, the San Jose Mercury News and Los Angeles Times reported.

Arellano Felix was returned to Mexico on Tuesday after getting credit for time already served in a Mexican prison while he awaited extradition, a Justice Department spokeswoman told the Mercury News.

The 58-year-old Arellano Felix is the eldest of seven brothers behind the Tijuana-based cartel that is reportedly among the groups violently battling for control of the drug trade in Juarez, just across the border from El Paso.

He was boss of the Tijuana cartel when he was arrested in Mexico in 1993 and was sentenced to 11 years for drug possession and using illegal weapons, but he spent two more years awaiting extradition to the United States where he was wanted for selling cocaine to an undercover agent, the Los Angeles Times reported.

He pleaded guilty in San Diego last June and was given a six-year federal prison sentence, which he began serving in January, the Times reported.

He was paroled on Feb. 1, a Federal Bureau of Prisons official told the Times.

El Paso television station KVIA ABC-7 said it is unclear whether Arellano Felix's release will bring about even more violence in Juarez, where an estimated 89 people have been killed since January in escalating drug-related violence.

Mexican authorities told the Mercury News that Arrelano Felix currently faces no criminal charges in Mexico and is a free man. 

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