Six people found in a van shot to death in Tijuana
Five men and a woman were found dead in a van with California plate. A man was seen leaving the van in a parking lot on Aqua Caliente near the swanky Grand hotel, and just walked away. The van was reported stolen in Sept 2022.
The bodies showed signs of torture, some had their pants pulled down to their ankles.
Tijuana Policia is too busy shaking down tourists to investigate. This horrible crime will go unsolved like 98% homicide cases in Mexico.
[URL]https://www.borderreport.com/immigration/border-crime/six-people-found-shot-to-death-in-tijuana-as-city-nears-2000-murders-for-2022/[/URL]
Six people found shot to death in Tijuana as city nears 2,000 murders for 2022 by: Salvador Rivera.
TIJUANA (Border Report) — With the discovery of six bodies inside a van — five men and a woman — Tijuana has surpassed its murder total from last year and is getting closer to eclipsing the 2,000-murder mark for the year, according to Baja California's Prosecutor's office.
The vehicle, which had California license plates, was found in the parking lot of a strip mall that belongs to ex-Tijuana Mayor Carlos Bustamante Anchondo.
It's the same parking lot where two other people were found shot to death on Dec. 1, though the two incidents do not appear to be related and investigators have not liked them.
Roberto Quijano Sosa, president of the Citizens Council for Public Safety in Baja California, says the high number of murders in cities such as Tijuana and Mexicali is the result of bad communication between law enforcement from all three levels of government.
Tijuana on track to reach 2,000 murders for the year — again.
"As long as there is no coordination, prevention and most of all the will to face this issue by police, we'll keep seeing this type of crime," Quijano said during a Monday news conference to address the ongoing violence in northern Baja California.
Quijano said the region was doing well early on in the year with a low total of murders, but as of June, the numbers and the bodies started piling up with 211 murders for that month.
Since then, an average of 185 to 195 murders per month have been reported.
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Mexico arrests Ovidio Guzman, son of 'El Chapo,' city engulfed by violence
Ovidio was hanging out in HK all night, high as a kite, his glassy eyes fixated on the strip stage. 2019 Mexico's Marines arrested him in Cuilacan but Sinaloa cartel blocked off all roads, burned trucks and buses, threatened to execute families of Army, Marines and Policias. AMLO had to order him released. Drug cartels are deeply woven into all levels of Mexico's population and government.
Arrested again today in Culiacan, Sinaloa Cartel was burning trucks, shooting at AeroMexico jets parked at the airport.
They did the same thing in Tijuana a few months ago. May be wise to cool off and stay away from Tijuana a while.
[URL]https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexicos-culiacan-suffers-night-violence-with-gunfire-blockades-2023-01-05/[/URL]
Mexico arrests Ovidio Guzman, son of 'El Chapo,' city engulfed by violence.
By Lizbeth Diaz and Dave Graham.
Vehicles block roads in Mexico's Culiacan after drug lord's recapture.
Burning vehicles are seen blocking a road after drug lord Ovidio Guzman's capture, in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico January 5, 2023. Revista Espejo / LEO Espinoza / Handout via REUTERS.
Mexico City, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Mexican drug cartel leader Ovidio Guzman, a son of jailed kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was arrested, unleashing a violent backlash by gang gunmen on Thursday that shut the airport in the city of Culiacan as authorities told residents to stay indoors.
Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval told a news conference that security forces had captured the 32-year-old senior member of the Sinaloa Cartel. The arrest comes three years after an attempt to detain him ended in humiliation for the government.
Ovidio was now being held in the capital Mexico City, Sandoval said.
Videos shared on social media, which Reuters was unable to immediately verify, appeared to show heavy fighting overnight in Culiacan, the main city in the northern state of Sinaloa, with the sky lit up by helicopter gunfire.
The city's airport was the target of violence, with Mexican airline Aeromexico saying one of its planes had been hit by gunfire ahead of a scheduled flight to Mexico City. No-one was hurt, it said. The airport was closed until Thursday night.
Ovidio, who has become a key figure in the cartel since the arrest of his father, was briefly detained in 2019 but was quickly released to end violent retribution in Culiacan from his gang. The incident was an embarrassing setback for the government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
His latest capture comes before a North American leaders' summit in Mexico City next week, which USA President Joe Biden will attend and at which security issues are on the agenda.
One of the Mexican officials said Guzman's arrest was likely to prove a welcome addition to USA -Mexico cooperation on security ahead of Biden's visit.
The United States had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Ovidio.
It not yet clear whether Ovidio will be extradited to the United States like his father, who is serving a life sentence at Colorado's Supermax, the most secure USA Federal prison.
A surge in overdose deaths in the United States, fueled by the synthetic opioid fentanyl, has led to increased pressure on Mexico to combat the organizations. Such as the Sinaloa Cartel. Responsible for producing and shipping the drug.
The cartel is one of the world's most powerful narcotics trafficking organizations.
For Tomas Guevara, a security expert at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, Guzman's arrest helps save face for Mexican law enforcement following the humiliation of having to let El Chapo's son go in 2019.
"The detention of Ovidio is finally the culmination of something that was planned three years ago," he said.
It might also herald a change in approach by the government, Guevara added, after criticism from many security experts that Lopez Obrador was soft on the cartels, an accusation he denies.
The president argues the confrontational tactics of his predecessors were unsuccessful and only caused more bloodshed, saying he would instead pursue a strategy of "hugs not bullets. ".
RESIDENTS URGED TO STAY INDOORS.
On Thursday morning, security forces were attempting to contain a violent reaction to the arrest in the Culiacan area by Guzman's associates.
Burned vehicles were scattered on the streets and heavily armed law enforcement patrolled in pickup trucks.
"We continue to work on controlling the situation," said Cristobal Castaneda, Sinaloa's public security chief.
Local government urged people to stay indoors and said schools and administrative offices were closed due to the violence. Street blockades had also been erected.
"We ask the citizens of Culiacan not to leave home due to the blockades that have occurred in different parts of the city," Culiacan Mayor Juan de Dios Gamez wrote on Twitter.
Joaquin Guzman, 65, was convicted in New York in 2019 of trafficking billions of dollars of drugs to the United States and conspiring to murder enemies.
Eduardo Guerrero, director of Lantia Consulting which analyzes Mexican organized crime, said that recent pressure from the Biden administration to target the Sinaloa Cartel had likely motivated Mexico to go after Guzman.
But he warned that while Ovidio's capture was likely to weaken that cartel, it could help their main rival, the notoriously violent Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
"It's very important the government bear in mind that the weakening of the Sinaloa Cartel may also bring about an even greater expansion, a greater presence of the Jalisco Cartel.
Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz, Dave Graham and Diego Ore, additional reporting by Tomas Bravo, Kylie Madry and Jackie Botts, Writing by Stephen Eisenhammer Editing by Alistair Bell.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.