http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/dec/17/killings-point-surge-drug-war/
The body of an alleged drug dealer is seen covered by a sheet after being shot to death in front of his house in Tijuana, Mexico, in this Sept. 6, 2009 file photo. (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias, File)
24: Murders Tuesday and yesterday
71: Murders in December
603: Murders in 2009, as of yesterday
844: Murders in 2008
TIJUANA — Five victims were shot inside a seafood restaurant, four were decapitated and one was shot and hanged from a bridge. A surge in gangland-style killings in Tijuana is being linked to two rival drug-trafficking groups vying for control of the region.
Since the weekend, the death toll has been mounting rapidly: Of 71 homicides reported so far this month, 24 took place Tuesday and yesterday. Many recent victims were men in their 20s, though the youngest was 14 and the oldest appeared to be close to 60, authorities said.
“We are witnessing a war between drug traffickers,” said Rommel Moreno Manjarrez, Baja California’s attorney general. Many of those who have been killed are low-level operatives in the trafficking organizations, and many have criminal records, he said.
“From every angle, this points to organized crime,” Moreno said.
Some experts say the renewed rise in violence is the result of the end of a fragile truce forged earlier this year between Fernando Sánchez Arellano and Teodoro García Simental, reputed leaders of the two main drug gangs operating in the area, a crucial transit point for the U.S. market.
But others contend that there was never a truce. They say the renewed bloodshed is merely a sign that the warring parties have sufficiently recovered from previous battles to start up again.
“This is the dynamic of the war,” said Víctor Clark, a human-rights activist and longtime observer of trafficking groups. “Violence leaves them depleted, they rearm themselves, and once again charge ahead.”
The rivalries led to a record number of 844 homicides in Tijuana last year, most of them in the final three months. The total so far this year is 603.
Among the most recent victims are five men killed when hooded and heavily armed men sprayed gunfire at Wichos Tacos in the Otay Mesa section of Tijuana about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Samuel García Cervantes, 25; Jorge Alejandro Félix Gutiérrez, 25; Javier García Sevilla, 35; and an unidentified victim died at the restaurant. A fifth victim, Gerardo de Jesús López, 30, was pronounced dead at a hospital.
In several instances, the killers left messages suggesting an act of retaliation against the rival drug group.
Authorities said one was left by the body of the unidentified man between the ages of 40 and 45 found shot in the head and left hanging early Monday from a bridge in the southern district of La Gloria.
But some may have died as bystanders. On Saturday, a 14-year-old was killed in a taxi riddled with gunfire. Police found a 19-year-old man dead inside the vehicle and a 27-year-old man dead on the adjacent sidewalk.
The violence follows a series of recent blows to the drug-trafficking gangs, including the discovery of two incomplete drug-smuggling tunnels in Tijuana and the seizure of large sums of cash in Tijuana and Mexicali.
Moreno, the attorney general, said authorities believe the most recent violence could have been triggered by the seizure of $2.1 million from a Mexicali warehouse by the Mexican military Dec. 9.
As the killings continued yesterday, authorities announced the arrests of seven suspects in two other incidents that they said were related to drug gangs.
Sandra Dibble: (619) 293-1716; sandra.dibble@uniontrib.com
