Officials in Mexico say the leader of a Tijuana-based drug cartel has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for drug trafficking and organized crime.
The attorney general's office said Tuesday that the sentence against Benjamin Arellano Felix will be added to a five-year jail term handed down by a judge in April on separate charges.
Arellano Felix is part of a family suspected of leading one of Mexico's most powerful drug-smuggling rings, based in the border town of Tijuana, just south of the U.S. state of California. Officials say Arellano Felix ran the cartel until his arrest in 2002 during a police raid.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon has tried to crack down on drug trafficking since taking office in December.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
