Drug War: Mexican drug kingpin to get lighter prison sentence than lower-ranking operatives

AP/Washington Post: "Mexican drug kingpin Benjamin Arellano Felix stood attentively in court, acknowledging his guilt as a federal judge read a plea agreement that detailed his role at the helm of one of the world’s most powerful cartels in the 1990s. ... His cartel, which once had an iron-tight grip on the drug trade along California’s border with Mexico, has struggled in recent years as other cartels have become more ruthless than ever.

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." read more