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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Weekend violence toll in Tijuana at 17; 4-year-old among dead |
| 2008-11-30 |
| Another descent into chaos TIJUANA – One of the deadliest waves of violence in the city continued Saturday night and Sunday morning as 11 people were killed in several attacks, raising the weekend death toll in Tijuana to 17, authorities reported. The dead included the nephew of the state's tourism director. not gonna see that in a brochure Authorities did however, detain three gunmen who confessed to being part of a cell fighting for control of drug trafficking in the region, said the director of the state police force. think that confession was "under duress"? Four people were killed in the deadliest of the attacks Saturday night, which occurred in Tijuana's eastside. Municipal police said gunmen arrived at a grocery store in colonia Lomas de la Presa shortly after 9 p.m. and opened fire inside and outside the store. Two children, ages 4 and 13, were among those killed. The bloodshed continued at 9:40 p.m. when a man was shot to death inside a station wagon parked on 11th Street in downtown Tijuana, municipal police reported. At midnight, the bodies of three men who had been shot to death, their hands and feet bound, were found in an alley in colonia Alemann on the city's westside. At nearly the same time, police found the body of a man wrapped in a blanket and blue adhesive tape in an alley in colonia Libertad, adjacent to the border. About 3:30 a.m. Sunday, a young man was assassinated on avenida Las Ferias, in the upscale neighborhood of Lomas Hipodromo. The Baja California attorney genera'l office identified the victim as Angel Escobedo, nephew of Oscar Escobedo, head of the state's tourism agency, and Maria Escobedo, president of the chamber of commerce. Meanwhile, about 5:30 a.m. Sunday in Rosarito Beach, local police reported finding the body of a man inside a 1993 Honda Accord parked in front of a taco shop. He appeared to have been tortured, and a message, believed to be from drug traffickers, was found next to him. Police did not reveal the contents of the message. Earlier Saturday, gunmen carried out four attacks in Tijuana, killing a total of six people and wounding five others. Three gunmen who fled after one of the Saturday night attacks in Tijuana were chased and intercepted by authorities, said Juan Guillen, director of the state police force. They had seven rifles, several chargers for AK-47s and R-15 rifles, bulletproof vests, helmets and masks, he said. He identified the three as Jose Ramon Garcia, 33; Saul Arnoldo Jacobi, 30; and Roberto Castañeda, 42. The latter was a state police investigator, Guillen said. Guillen said the three gunmen confessed to being part of a cell run by Filiberto Parra Ramos, nicknamed “La Perra,” who works for a cell led by Teodoreo Garcia Simental, known as “El Teo.” Authorities believe Garcia Simental is one of the drug lords fighting for control of the lucrative border region. Those battles have pushed the death toll in Tijuana to an unprecedented 726 killings this year. as long as the drug gangs kill each other, no problem. Problem is, they have all the training and accuracy of Paleo gumen (i.e.: nobody's safe) |
| Posted by:Frank G |