Post by evp5O on Dec 1, 2008 9:57:33 GMT -5
The violence is growing at our border with Mexico.
The attackers are now wearing FULL body armor including the
Hockey mask style ballistic protection as well as being
armed to the teeth.
Carnage persists; weekend toll is 34
Cops found decapitated; tot, teen among victims
The decapitated bodies of three police officers were found alongside six other beheaded corpses yesterday in a weekend of violence in which 34 people were slain in different sections of Tijuana.
The victims included a 4-year-old boy and a 13-year-old boy, killed by gunmen Saturday night together with two adults by a grocery store in eastern Tijuana. Several hours later, the 18-year-old nephew of Baja California's tourism secretary was found shot to death inside a vehicle a few miles east of downtown.
The deaths bring to more than 360 the number killed since late September, when the violence between rival drug gangs first began to soar in a turf battle targeting each other and law enforcement officials. The total dead so far this year is more than 740, compared with 337 for all of 2007.
The nine decapitated corpses were discovered about noon in an eastern section of the city. They were found beneath a power line that runs through a neighborhood of modest houses and small businesses. The officers'identification cards had been left with the bodies, said a spokeswoman for the Baja California Attorney General's Office.
The three police officers had been assigned to high-crime districts in eastern Tijuana and Otay Mesa, the Tijuana police department said. The Baja California Attorney General's Office identified them as Rudy Galeana Guillén, Esaul RNos Montiel and Jesús Alberto Lara Ruiz.
It was unclear whether the officers were among a group of more than 400 officers in those districts and two others temporarily taken off their beats so they can receive training and undergo extensive background checks.
A fourth officer, Alan Bernal Estrada, was slain Saturday at a used auto-parts business, the Attorney General's Office said.
The slayings have come as many officers in the 2,200-member department have been under suspicion of having links to drug traffickers. Some 200 officers have been dropped from the force since Mayor Jorge Ramos took office a year ago. An additional 20 officers – many of them high-ranking commanders – are currently being held for questioning by organized crime investigators in Mexico City.
“It is a very difficult situation,” Alberto Capella Ibarra, Tijuana's secretary of public safety, said in a radio interview yesterday morning on Radio Hispana 1470-AM. The violence, he said, “is the consequence of . . . so many years of impunity, so many years of breakdowns of institutions, so many years that we allowed this to grow.”
President Felipe Calderón's campaign against drug cartels has ignited a violent reaction across Mexico as the weakened groups battle each other and take on law enforcement agencies. The large border cities of Ciudad Juarez and more recently, Tijuana, have been among the hardest-hit areas.
“The easiest thing for the federal government would have been closing our eyes to reality,” Calderón said yesterday in Mexico City. “We did not do so, deciding to confront it, with all of its consequences.”
Even with the rise in violence, this weekend's carnage was unusually high for Tijuana. The state reported 34 dead in 14 incidents Saturday and yesterday. Eleven victims had been identified, and seven had criminal records, according to a statement from the Attorney General's Office.
One of the most vicious incidents involved the deaths of four people, including the 4-and 13-year-old boys, at a grocery Saturday night in eastern Tijuana. The 13-year-old was found in the back seat of Volkswagen Jetta outside the store, and the 4-year-old was in the arms of an injured woman seated at the entrance, municipal police said.
An incident early yesterday involved the nephew of tourism secretary Oscar Escobedo and Mario Escobedo, president of the Tijuana Chamber of Commerce. The Attorney General's Office said that Angel Escobedo JNmenez, 18, was found shot to death inside a vehicle, several miles southeast of downtown.
The attackers are now wearing FULL body armor including the
Hockey mask style ballistic protection as well as being
armed to the teeth.
Carnage persists; weekend toll is 34
Cops found decapitated; tot, teen among victims
The decapitated bodies of three police officers were found alongside six other beheaded corpses yesterday in a weekend of violence in which 34 people were slain in different sections of Tijuana.
The victims included a 4-year-old boy and a 13-year-old boy, killed by gunmen Saturday night together with two adults by a grocery store in eastern Tijuana. Several hours later, the 18-year-old nephew of Baja California's tourism secretary was found shot to death inside a vehicle a few miles east of downtown.
The deaths bring to more than 360 the number killed since late September, when the violence between rival drug gangs first began to soar in a turf battle targeting each other and law enforcement officials. The total dead so far this year is more than 740, compared with 337 for all of 2007.
The nine decapitated corpses were discovered about noon in an eastern section of the city. They were found beneath a power line that runs through a neighborhood of modest houses and small businesses. The officers'identification cards had been left with the bodies, said a spokeswoman for the Baja California Attorney General's Office.
The three police officers had been assigned to high-crime districts in eastern Tijuana and Otay Mesa, the Tijuana police department said. The Baja California Attorney General's Office identified them as Rudy Galeana Guillén, Esaul RNos Montiel and Jesús Alberto Lara Ruiz.
It was unclear whether the officers were among a group of more than 400 officers in those districts and two others temporarily taken off their beats so they can receive training and undergo extensive background checks.
A fourth officer, Alan Bernal Estrada, was slain Saturday at a used auto-parts business, the Attorney General's Office said.
The slayings have come as many officers in the 2,200-member department have been under suspicion of having links to drug traffickers. Some 200 officers have been dropped from the force since Mayor Jorge Ramos took office a year ago. An additional 20 officers – many of them high-ranking commanders – are currently being held for questioning by organized crime investigators in Mexico City.
“It is a very difficult situation,” Alberto Capella Ibarra, Tijuana's secretary of public safety, said in a radio interview yesterday morning on Radio Hispana 1470-AM. The violence, he said, “is the consequence of . . . so many years of impunity, so many years of breakdowns of institutions, so many years that we allowed this to grow.”
President Felipe Calderón's campaign against drug cartels has ignited a violent reaction across Mexico as the weakened groups battle each other and take on law enforcement agencies. The large border cities of Ciudad Juarez and more recently, Tijuana, have been among the hardest-hit areas.
“The easiest thing for the federal government would have been closing our eyes to reality,” Calderón said yesterday in Mexico City. “We did not do so, deciding to confront it, with all of its consequences.”
Even with the rise in violence, this weekend's carnage was unusually high for Tijuana. The state reported 34 dead in 14 incidents Saturday and yesterday. Eleven victims had been identified, and seven had criminal records, according to a statement from the Attorney General's Office.
One of the most vicious incidents involved the deaths of four people, including the 4-and 13-year-old boys, at a grocery Saturday night in eastern Tijuana. The 13-year-old was found in the back seat of Volkswagen Jetta outside the store, and the 4-year-old was in the arms of an injured woman seated at the entrance, municipal police said.
An incident early yesterday involved the nephew of tourism secretary Oscar Escobedo and Mario Escobedo, president of the Tijuana Chamber of Commerce. The Attorney General's Office said that Angel Escobedo JNmenez, 18, was found shot to death inside a vehicle, several miles southeast of downtown.