AND FURILLO DOES ANOTHER ONE
On December 9, 2004, ANDY FURILLO, staff writer at the SACRAMENTO BEE went a little off his usual NORCAL beat and came up with a terrific article about the Eme and its connection to the ARELLANO FELIX drug cartel with a SAN DIEGO dateline. An easy search should bring you to the SAC BEE website and you can read it for yourself. The story adds a big chunk of information to the diligent student's database.

While the story has a lot of threads (a crooked but so far unconvicted CDC prison guard, an aborted prison escape, a barber shop that was a essentially an EME "war room," a planned hit on a San Diego cop etc.) the most enlightening was a hard connection between the brothers and the AF cartel.

If you follow local drug and homicide trials, invariably, there's always some kind of connection between SOUTHERN SOLDIERS and narco dealers south of the border. Local LE has always suspected that deals were being made at a level way above the average street dealer's pay grade. Furillo's story confirms that theory.

Furillo's story echoes a relationship between the brothers and Mexican drug cartels that goes back to the 1970s. At the time, the biggest Mexican supplier and business associate of the Eme was a guy by the name of CHUY ARAUJO. He lived and operated in Mexico and packaged up big loads for delivery to the US. The brothers also sent him parolees or fugitives so they could decompress with some R&R in sunny Mexico. Araujo's main contact was none other than JOE "COCOLISO" MORGAN. He was also called PEGLEG, but never to his face.

ARUAJO and MORGAN were eventually taken out of circulation, but obviously, the connections were reactivated and have flourished. We're probably only becoming aware of the very tip of that iceberg.