On November 7, 2011 Juan Francisco Sillas Rocha, nicknamed El Sillas and La Rueda, was captured by the Mexican Army in the border city of Tijuana. He was the second-in-command in the Tijuana cartel, and considered by Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional as "one of the most violent" drug traffickers in Mexico, responsible for a number of murders. Sillas Rocha, under the tutelage of Sánchez Arellano, fought Teodoro García Simental for the control of the criminal activities in Tijuana between 2008 and 2010. He is also accused of kidnapping three women who were relatives of Ismael Zambada García, a drug baron of the Sinaloa cartel. Sillas Rocha was believed to be retaliating for the disappearance of his sister in 2010.
Bounty
The Attorney General of Mexico was offering a $30 million peso bounty for information leading to his arrest.
Arrest
At around 16:00 local time on June 23, 2014, Sánchez Arellano was arrested by soldiers of the Mexican Army and federal agents of the Procuraduría General de la República at a Carl's Jr. fast food restaurant in the Mesa de Otay borough in Tijuana, Baja California, while watching the FIFA World Cup game between Mexico and Croatia. Sánchez Arellano was wearing the Mexico national team jersey and had the team's colors painted on his face. The arrest was made without a single shot fired. The security forces also confiscated US$100,000 he had with him at the moment of his arrest. The following day, he was transferred to the SEIDO installations, Mexico's organized crime investigatory agency, in Mexico City to give his statement and be interrogated by law enforcement. The Mexican government accused Sánchez Arellano of being involved in organized crime, drug trafficking, and of violating Mexico's Federal Law of Firearms and Explosives. Authorities also believed he was responsible for several extortions, kidnappings, and homicides in the Baja California municipalities of Tijuana, Playas de Rosarito, Tecate and Ensenada. On 25 June 2014, the PGR's Agency of Criminal Investigation officially confirmed the identity of Sánchez Arellano using DNA testing and photograph comparisons. The agency used the DNA samples the government had on its database of his relatives who were also involved in organized crime: his uncles Ramón, Benjamín, and Francisco Rafael Arellano Félix, along with his alleged mother Enedina. The results showed that Sánchez Arellano is biologically related to them and the Arellano Félix crime family, as initially presumed by law enforcement. In addition, the agency used at least five photographs law enforcement had of Sánchez Arellano to confirm similarities in its facial features. The images analyzed corresponded to one that circulated on the Internet, one that was from an I.D. card the drug lord took at Sam's Club under the alias Fernando Canalles Villanueva, one from his Baja California driver's license under the name Fernando Canales Villanueva, one from his passport under the name Fernando Canales Villanueva, one from the DEA's database, and the one taken during his arrest.
Imprisonment and trial
On 27 June 2014, Sánchez Arellano was transferred to the Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 1 maximum-security prison in Almoloya de Juárez, State of Mexico. The imprisonment was allowed after a federal court found sufficient evidence against him. Three days later, a federal court in Toluca sent his trial to motion for his alleged criminal activities.
