BajaNomad

Rosarito Beach- YIKES!!!

thebajarunner - 6-22-2006 at 07:52 AM

3 Officers Among 4 Decapitated in Mexico
Police were responding to a kidnapping report when met by 100 armed men, witnesses say.
By Richard Marosi
Times Staff Writer

June 22, 2006

SAN DIEGO ? Mexican authorities discovered the decapitated bodies of three police officers and a fourth man Wednesday near an empty lot in the seaside town of Rosarito Beach, about 15 miles south of the border.

The officers had gone missing Tuesday after responding to a report of a kidnapping. Witnesses said that the officers were intercepted by about 100 heavily armed, masked men dressed as Mexican federal agents, said a spokesman for the Baja California state attorney general's office.

The men's bodies showed signs of torture. Their heads were found in Tijuana, several miles away. Authorities said the men were the victims of an organized crime hit, the latest in a string of killings or attempted killings of law enforcement officials in Baja California.

Rosarito Beach, a popular weekend destination for Southern Californians, is also a heavily contested transshipment point for drug traffickers.

One of the victims ? Benjamin Fabian Ventura, was the bodyguard of Rosarito Beach's former police chief, Carlos Bowser Miret, who was killed in an ambush slaying last year.

The other dead police officers are Jesus Hernandez Ballesteros and Ismael Arellano Torres. The fourth man was not identified.

Bruce R Leech - 6-22-2006 at 07:58 AM

OK OK this sounds really bad but lets not lose our heads over it. it could have just been a mistake.

surfer jim - 6-22-2006 at 08:06 AM

I got back just in time....Who took the heads to TJ?....:lol:....hope they got paid extra for that....

On a more serious side...this is out of control....so far not really involving tourists at least from what I have read....but the law enforcement is just not there for anyone ...and when it is it is corupt....sounding like IRAQ now....I don't see it getting better at all....

Bruce R Leech - 6-22-2006 at 08:14 AM

it could be that those heads were just about to fall off anyway.:lol:

Shame on you!

thebajarunner - 6-22-2006 at 08:54 AM

Finding humor in this post is pretty pathetic.
Even my sardonic sense of humor saw nothing funny about this.
It is sad, sad, sad.
Sad for the families.
Sad for Rosarito.
Sad for Baja.
Sad for all of us who love visiting this place.
End of comment!

Attaboy, Bruce

MrBillM - 6-22-2006 at 09:05 AM

As one who has been criticized often in the past for finding humor in tragic circumstances, I appreciate and applaud your insensitive offering.

Bruce R Leech - 6-22-2006 at 09:06 AM

come on thebajarunner lighten up this is just part of life here now and we are going to live with it for a long time. of coarse it is a sad situation but a lot of things in life are that way . we can either huddle up in the corner of our house or move on with our lives. if you don't keep a sense of humor here in Mexico you will go crazy.

longlegsinlapaz - 6-22-2006 at 09:24 AM

Living in Mexico doesn't mean we have to LIKE EVERYTHING that happens here, nor does it mean we should become jaded & disrespectful. Bruce, from previous posts of yours I've read, I'd have expected more sensitivity from you. What the original post said was a horrific tragedy. It tells just what lengths the drug trafficers will go to to continue plying their trade. What would your attitude have been if this had happened in Mulege? You don't know me & probably could give a rats ass, but one post like this wipes out all the respect you'd earned for all the posts you've made in the past that were compassionate & sensitive!

wilderone - 6-22-2006 at 09:32 AM

You have to weigh what this all means, along with everything else - the risks of the highway, the scams, the costs, and yes, the rewards of the beautiful beach at the end of the day. Personally, I'm leaning toward avoiding Baja for a while until -- unless -- things start to change on the other side of the scale. I just got back from hiking, camping and hot springs in the Gila National Forest. Free camping on the river - only one other camper; beautiful natural hot springs right on the river for $3.00/day (for $4 you could camp there); and plenty of unmarked wilderness roads for exploration and adventure. I'll miss Baja, but there's plenty in our own backyard that provides the adventure I seek for much less risk and cost.

JZ - 6-22-2006 at 09:45 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by longlegsinlapaz
...one post like this wipes out all the respect you'd earned for all the posts you've made in the past...


Big time ditto. What an idiototic thing to say, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Debra - 6-22-2006 at 09:55 AM

No disrespect intended here.........but, I have to ask? 100 armed, masked men? in Rosarita? Is this for real? Dave, please tell us what you know.

Beware the Speech Police.

MrBillM - 6-22-2006 at 09:57 AM

Bruce, you have run afoul of the Touchy-Feely Gestapo and their tiresome condemnation of ill thinking. These are the ones who always express politically correct compassionate WORDS while never actually doing anything to address the problems that result in these events. Their "Hearts" always go out to these unfortunates, but their "Actions" are lacking.

Shame, Shame, Shame on you.

Just Kidding.

thebajarunner - 6-22-2006 at 10:18 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Debra
No disrespect intended here.........but, I have to ask? 100 armed, masked men? in Rosarita? Is this for real? Dave, please tell us what you know.


Debra,
Which number is important?
100 masked men,
or four mutilated officers?
Yeah, I too wondered about the gang of 100, but that is pretty insignificant to the story, isn't it?
Well, not to some, I guess.
Still a pretty sad deal.
Next week when Baja Vida and I drive down to the observatory we will be by-passing Rosarito.... if for no other reason than respect for the dead.
And, my favorite panaderia is in RB.

Cincodemayo - 6-22-2006 at 10:21 AM

Hmmmm....Over 100 heavily armed men, decapitations...You'd think the Mexican Government would have Ensenada cordoned off with the place crawling with Federales searching for the murderers. Something just doesn't jive as this story should have been all over CNN. Maybe it will be soon enough as this makes the Officials look like Keystone cops...:O

Debra - 6-22-2006 at 10:30 AM

MrBillM:

While you might find "their tiresome condemnation of ill thinking" ("tiresome") Your statement that "these are the ones who always express politically correct compassionate WORDS while never actually doing anything to address the problems that result in these events" I find "tiresome", borish and without facts of findings. (Just where do you base your facts?) IMHO people that try to find the good in the world usually find that good, others, well? Bruce is man enough to own up to his flipent remark I'm sure (I'm sure he meant no ill-will) Bruce is a man of honor I feel, are you?

Sincerely, Debra (AKA: Touchy Feely Gestapo)

bajajudy - 6-22-2006 at 10:36 AM

More details

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20060622-9...

Bruce R Leech - 6-22-2006 at 10:42 AM

I will show a lot more respect when I am convinced that this is not just a story made up by the Gringo Gazette or something like that. for now it reminds me of that movie three heads in a duffel bag. and that was funny

Debra - 6-22-2006 at 10:51 AM

Sorry Bajarunner....I guess I didn't explaine my thinking. If this really happened (that was my question, the report of 100 masked, armed men pulling into Rosarita seemed unreal, I didn't in my mind get to the next step of the slay officers) If true, It's hard to get my brain around it, coming from a my own feelings about another dead officer, My "Dad" , in the small little town that I live in, it just doesn't "compute" My apoligies.

Bob H - 6-22-2006 at 10:56 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Debra
No disrespect intended here.........but, I have to ask? 100 armed, masked men? in Rosarita? Is this for real? Dave, please tell us what you know.


And just how do all of these people get through the checkpoints? Huh?
Bob H

leadmoto - 6-22-2006 at 11:15 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by thebajarunner
Finding humor in this post is pretty pathetic.
Even my sardonic sense of humor saw nothing funny about this.
It is sad, sad, sad.
Sad for the families.
Sad for Rosarito.
Sad for Baja.
Sad for all of us who love visiting this place.
End of comment!


I'm in agreement with thebajarunner.

Honor ??

MrBillM - 6-22-2006 at 11:20 AM

Since it would appear that your equation for being honorable is one in which I would apologize for my lack of Syrup-Sweet sensitivity, I'll have to opt out of your League of Honor. I'll assign that disappointment the value that it deserves.

In defense of my other statement, I'll have to say that my personal experience over the years with the "touchy-feely" crowd has been that the level of lip-service that they give to Worldwide Human misfortune FAR exceeds their actual level of involvement. IF they sincerely felt at the level they espouse, they would not be laying on a beach in Baja. They would be somewhere in the bowels of the third-world giving selflessly of themselves and their resources.

bancoduo - 6-22-2006 at 11:42 AM

Gee! Where are all the pictures???????????????????????:O

Bruce R Leech - 6-22-2006 at 12:09 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by bancoduo
Gee! Where are all the pictures???????????????????????:O


yes you would think that if some was brave or dumb enough to stand around and count 100 armed teariest that they would snap a photo or two:lol:

"Wilderone" has struck a note with me----

Barry A. - 6-22-2006 at 12:24 PM

-------after 50+ years of travelling and investing in Baja and Mexico, I too am growing weary of these types of reports and what they represent (at least to me)----------who needs this!!!!

Like Wilderone, I just returned from 2 wonderful weeks in New Mexico and found lots of places that delighted me just like Baja used to do, and without crazies running around causing me and my family consternation. (at least I did not see or hear of any). Also spent a week in the Eastern Sierra---------this country cannot be beat!!!

I have about 70% made up my mind to give up travel in Mexico and stick to the beautiful places in the USA that to date I have barely scratched the surface of. Mexico has slowly gone nuts, it seems to me, and is losing out.

I repeat, "who needs the mental discomfort and concern of travelling in a country that appears to be losing the battle to establish at least partial civilization, and the rule of law".

I pulled all my investments out of Mexico 2 years ago, and very well may not visit there again. I have litterally given up on them after years of championing them.

Perhaps it is time to "build the wall" so to speak, it seems to me. I am just disgusted in their apparent lack of progress, especially with all they have going for them in natural and cultural resources------they just cannot get their "act" together, and their citizens are suffering, and fleeing north.

Almost all of my old time Mexico travelling buddies are echoing what I am saying. It does not bode well----------.

Just some thoughts.

LonglegsinLaPaz

Baja Bernie - 6-22-2006 at 02:04 PM

I guess a lot of you folks don't realize that this stuff has been going on for well over five years. It was unusual if we didn't have at least two bodies dropped around La Mision and La Salina every couple of weeks--As to some foto's the average folks in Baja Norte 'know' not to stick around and get 'dead.'

So a hundred guys is unusual, but it is a graphic show of force.

Cinco---I would be willing to bet that the authorties were aware of who ordered the killing within a couple of hours after they were discovered--they won't be talking for the same reason as listed above.

Not funny and not sad...just reality in 'most of Mexico' and one day it will wander into Mulege. Just look across the Sea to the State of Sinoala. People have always thought that the major tourist spots were off limits but look at Acapalco.

Sooner or later some mistakes will be made and a gringo tourist or two will be wasted and then everyone will scream--for a couple of weeks.

It is just is not a nice world out there.

I know just what Bruce meant because as an old timer he is aware of this sh-t but normally we don't talk about it--after all we are all invested, with our hearts, in this paradise. So don't fault Bruce for trying to remain sane and functioning.

Some of you just might want to become more aware of what goes on behind the scenes in your playground--no offense meant.

PS Look at the street gangs in L.A. four a weekend is nothing to them and they use AK-47's with relish. Same thing in most 'major' American Cities--heck they just wasted 5 in New Orleans and the National Guard and State Troopers have been called in.

[Edited on 6-22-2006 by Baja Bernie]

Bob H

Baja Bernie - 6-22-2006 at 02:16 PM

Never saw a check point on the free road to TJ.

Bernie--------

Barry A. - 6-22-2006 at 03:13 PM

---------I gave up on LA in the '50's, and San Diego in the late 60's. They are hopeless, in my opinion, and I want nothing to do with them except an occasional visit. I feel this way about most major cities in the USA. They are "down and outer" magnets, as well as magnets for predators, self-percieved "victims" and opportunists, and are just too dicey for me.

I have avoided all "cities" of any size for a long time. Now, my present home of Redding, CA is approaching 100,000 with some of the inherrant problems of a larger city, and I am thinking of seeking smaller towns further east, which do exist and are still reasonably safe and pleasent to live in, I think. We will see.

Baja has been showing signs of deteriorating for the last 10 years, or so, in my opinion. As much as I did not want to accept that, it is becoming pretty obvious what with better communications, and all, between those in the "know". To ignor the obvious is fool-hearty, but we are all a little guilty, I suppose, including me. I certainly did not want to admit this deterioration for purely selfish reasons, and for emphathy with the beautiful Mexican people and all my friends that have loved Mexico for years------but I can no longer ignor it. It makes me a little sick to my stomach, with a real sense of loss. I suppose that I may be a little paranoid about it, but the evidence says otherwise, at least to me.

Now, I will travel and see the USA-----maybe before it starts down the same track as Mexico. "Corruption" is the overriding villian, I believe, and so far we have avoided major corruption in the USA-----but there are signs that it is increasing. Corruption will bring any society down, eventually, and in Mexico's case it may be already beyond redemption------and the people do nothing to defeat it-----in fact they condone it--------disgusting.

How is that for "sour grapes"?? and this coming from the eternal optimist. I sincerely hope that I am wrong, but fear that I am not.

Viva Mexico!!! Viva the USA!!!

Cincodemayo - 6-22-2006 at 03:16 PM

Bernie...Guess it took this long for the Mexican thugs to start getting the Al Capone and Mafia mentality. Illicit drugs and money seem to bring out the best in people. You are absolutely correct about the LA gangs and the daily news of drive by shootings as the public surely gets hardened off quickly hearing it so often. I remember the days walking around East LA safely and getting a Tommy's burger at Beverly and Rampart without worrying about watching your back.

Goober

MrBillM - 6-22-2006 at 03:22 PM

I'm just trying to communicate on your level, though it's hard to sink that low.

The flag has absolutely nothing to do with Adolph and company. That was covered extensively in the previous exchanges. Are you slow or just plain dumb ?

[Edited on 6-22-2006 by MrBillM]

Hook - 6-22-2006 at 03:46 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bob H
Quote:
Originally posted by Debra
No disrespect intended here.........but, I have to ask? 100 armed, masked men? in Rosarita? Is this for real? Dave, please tell us what you know.


And just how do all of these people get through the checkpoints? Huh?
Bob H


Maybe they bought them off with a whole CASE of soda???????:lol:

But I would say the most likely explanation is that members of the military or the Federal Police might be some of the perps.

Not that it's effective at all, Bernie, but I believe there is a regularly operating checkpoint on the free road just south of Rosarito Beach. Huge backups at times when I fly by on the cuota.

[Edited on 6-22-2006 by Hook]

Cincodemayo - 6-22-2006 at 03:55 PM

So I take it the Ensenada Insurgency is in control now??:yes:
Major turning point in Baja Norte....Who's next ...judges and politicians?
Thinking about it probably not as they are most likely on the take.:o

Bob H - 6-22-2006 at 04:34 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by wilderone
I just got back from hiking, camping and hot springs in the Gila National Forest. Free camping on the river - only one other camper; beautiful natural hot springs right on the river for $3.00/day (for $4 you could camp there); and plenty of unmarked wilderness roads for exploration and adventure.


Wilderone, funny you should mention this. My wife and I are planning to visit this area sometime in September. Please email me at bajarover@yahoo.com as I have a couple of questions about this park and surrounding parks and Indian Reservations (Apache Trail) next door in Arizona.
Gracias, Bob H

bajalou - 6-22-2006 at 04:47 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Barry A.
---------. "Corruption" is the overriding villian, I believe, and so far we have avoided major corruption in the USA-----but there are signs that it is increasing. Corruption will bring any society down, eventually, and in Mexico's case it may be already beyond redemption------and the people do nothing to defeat it-----in fact they condone it--------disgusting.


I think that's just wishfull thinking Barry. The corruption in the USA is hidden and more subtle than in Mex. but I think just as widespread.

And here we're talking about the cities in Mex, with the big problems not the small towns. Similar as to what's NOB.

Bruce R Leech - 6-22-2006 at 06:00 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by thebajarunner
Finding humor in this post is pretty pathetic.
Even my sardonic sense of humor saw nothing funny about this.
It is sad, sad, sad.
Sad for the families.
Sad for Rosarito.
Sad for Baja.
Sad for all of us who love visiting this place.
End of comment!


I really find it hard to have much sympathy for these 4 peple they are as much involved in the drug cartel as the 100 armed men that scared them so bad that there heads fell off and rolled into TJ.

they chose to be involved with those kind of peple and they new what happens in there line of work. the next time you here of a persons life being ruined buy drugs you can go ahead and sympathize with the cartels of Mexico.

comitan - 6-22-2006 at 06:13 PM

I don't like to get into this kind of thead, but I have to agree with Bruce.

Viva Baja

Baja Bernie - 6-22-2006 at 07:18 PM

I believe that if you go back and read my post you will find that I only suggested that people become aware of what is 'really' going on around them as they play.

I have been going to Baja for about 50 years and I plan on continuing to visit the places that I love. I wil, however, remain ever aware of reality.

As the Bajarunner knows my new book departs just a bit from my tongue in cheek approach to my stories and I finally write just a little bit about the "under belly of Baja and it is not really pretty----I still spend about 200 pages with a smile on my face. The title........"THINK you know BAJA"..................

I could never give up on my many Mexican friends nor my love for this place. I hope most of you will not either.

Just be more aware as you wander through Paradise.

Bernie---------

Barry A. - 6-22-2006 at 07:25 PM

I agree with all you say here, but I will not be joining you south of the border-------at least not at this time.

I was just posting my present thinking---------I certainly do not advocate following my example-------it was just to promote some thought.

Awareness of what is going on around you is always the best policy, and will save you most of the time.

Barry

Dave - 6-22-2006 at 07:44 PM

There is now a major cartel turf war in Rosarito. I expect it will get worse. The police, once aligned with one side, are now being employed by one or the other.

The Rosarito businessman is peeed and scared. The outlying colonias are scared stiff. But ALL would like to see the current administration hanged.

The police are edgy and suffering from whiplash. Home or hunkered down at the stations.

Gringos: Those who aren't packing are emulating the ostrich.

And the realtors are peeed cause the Tribune printed the story.

Hook

Baja Bernie - 6-22-2006 at 08:02 PM

You are right about the check point on the free road south but I was talking about north toward TJ where various city, state and federal law offices are located.

Thanks Dave. I knew you would have fresher information than me.

Dave is this the same mayor who irritated everyone including council people when he issued all of those taxi permits and bought himself, with city money, a brand new bright red SUV.

Bruce R Leech - 6-22-2006 at 08:06 PM

thanks Dave

I think these wars are usually a good thing in the long run.

Bedman - 6-22-2006 at 08:09 PM

Just an Observation.

I keep reading lines here that, in effect say "Watch your surroundings", "Know where you are", Don't make stupid mistakes". I wonder, could I over power 100 armed men? or outrun 40 vehicles? I pretty much can handle most all situations that occur. But....100 guys? Where's Jackie Chan when you really need him?

Bedman

Bernie, could you bring me a Kevlar vest?

Dave - 6-22-2006 at 08:41 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bruce R Leech
thanks Dave

I think these wars are usually a good thing in the long run.


Ya think? :lol:

NOT!

These boys don't play fair. By the weekend I expect this place to be a ghost town.

I should have listened to my Mexican friends who warned against encouraging the local mafi..(er) cops who frequent the deli.

And I don't even serve doughnuts. :rolleyes:

Now, how do I get rid of them? Bernie?

JESSE - 6-22-2006 at 09:20 PM

I can probably pick those 30 cars from Google earth sitting here at my computer, i wonder why none of the thousands of Tijuana and Rosaritos cops noticed 100 armed men driving around the city:lol:

Folks, as many of you know, all of Mexico is in a cartel war since a few years ago, mainly the Sinaloa cartel vs the Gulf cartel, the 1st tried to take over the seconds territory but where stopped cold by a group of special operations soldiers that defected from the Mex military to join the gulf cartel. After losing a couple hundred hit men in their attempt to take over Nuevo Laredo, the Sinaloa cartel started hiring gang members from the notoriously violent Mara salvatrucha, a central american street gang. What did the gulf cartel do? they hired ex members of el Salvador's elite paramilitary death squads, the kaibiles. Anyways, Tijuanas cartel as set up alliances with both the gulf and the Juarez cartels to counter the Sinaloa cartel.

I have to admit these kinds of things are worrisome, but the reality is, that unless your in that business or sell sandwiches to local cops, you have nothing to worry about.;D

Dave - 6-22-2006 at 09:49 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by JESSE
the reality is, that unless your in that business or sell sandwiches to local cops, you have nothing to worry about.;D


It's against my religion but are you saying that I'll be OK if I were to give them away?

How about a (small) discount instead?

JESSE - 6-22-2006 at 10:15 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Dave
Quote:
Originally posted by JESSE
the reality is, that unless your in that business or sell sandwiches to local cops, you have nothing to worry about.;D


It's against my religion but are you saying that I'll be OK if I were to give them away?

How about a (small) discount instead?


I am not sure, those pastrami sandwiches can create a lot of trouble.

bajabound2005 - 6-22-2006 at 10:31 PM

Quote:
Quote:
but, I have to ask? 100 armed, masked men? in Rosarita? Is this for real? Dave, please tell us what you know.


And just how do all of these people get through the checkpoints? Huh?
Bob H


By knowing that Rosarita is RosaritO

bajamigo - 6-22-2006 at 10:53 PM

Life?s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Goodnight, all.

capt. mike - 6-23-2006 at 06:07 AM

yeah......but what does all this mean for the price of pot?
.............not that it is of concern to me. :lol::lol:

Bruce R Leech - 6-23-2006 at 06:08 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Dave
Quote:
Originally posted by JESSE
the reality is, that unless your in that business or sell sandwiches to local cops, you have nothing to worry about.;D


It's against my religion but are you saying that I'll be OK if I were to give them away?

How about a (small) discount instead?


Dave you can buy me for life with one of your sandwiches :lol:

thebajarunner - 6-23-2006 at 07:27 AM

Bruce, I know you don't believe Elvis is dead until you see the body.
However......
read this article in today's LATimes.
They think it happened.
And so do I.
And Rosarito Beach can kiss its economy goodbye if Mexico does not get a handle on this.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-behead23...

if you smoke mexi...

eetdrt88 - 6-23-2006 at 08:35 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by capt. mike
yeah......but what does all this mean for the price of pot?
.............not that it is of concern to me. :lol::lol:
it could mean trouble,but if you smoke the good stuff from northern cal. then it will be the same...expensive as always:o:lol:

Dave/Jesse

Baja Bernie - 6-23-2006 at 08:55 AM

Dave, have you noticed that I always come by early in the morning to miss the uniform rush.....just got out of there, last time, before that uniform brushed past you to get his?????????

I'm sure that they will not bother you as long as you don't run out of those great sandwiches. Just don't let them get into your wife's desserts....you'll be a goner then.

PS....Don't tell anybody but I hear the Mossad is having a garage sale.....you just might find what you need for self-defense.

Jesse,

Are you saying that your local guys are no longer outsoursing hit jobs to the San Diego street gangs?

[Edited on 6-23-2006 by Baja Bernie]

burro bob - 6-23-2006 at 10:30 AM

I told my buddies, at the garage, about this yesterday and they all had no sympathy for the 4 officers. Most thought that they were part of another gang. Some even thought that the 100 armed men were locals, peeed off at the corrupt police and taking vigilanty action.
Bernie is correct when he says that this happens more often than most of us think. We just don't here about it. The black helicopters showed up in San Felipe last winter, right after a military patrol got in a gun battle with drug runners, and lost. It was kept very quiet. Many of the locals didn't even know about it.
burro bob

For those worried about Baja

Baja Bernie - 6-23-2006 at 01:59 PM

These liks just may cause you to re-think leaving Baja.

American Street Gangs training for ..............something!

http://www.abqjournal.com/abqnews/index.php?option=com_conte...

The second one takes a little time to load.

http://www.nbc17.com/news/4228063/detail.html

Most scary--

there is a video about this running around the cop circles but I can't find it right now.

Not sure how we can conclude......

Hook - 6-23-2006 at 02:26 PM

....that the victims were involved with the drug cartels.

In both accounts I read, it seemed like they were simply the first officers to show up. One was even a civilian. A little outmanned, to say the least.

Seems more like a statement being made than any intentional hit; what with the headless corpses. But what were they massing for, anyway? There must have been some other activity they were running protection for, unless they were hoping to draw out the entire Rosarito police force.

Ah, Mexico.......use your military to search vacationing gringos at clearly defined checkpoints but send your city police up against paramilitary drug cartels. As if the cartels run stuff through the checkpoints, anyway......

If I was the investigator on this, I'd want to know what commander sent those guys on that call so unprepared, given the numbers reported in the initial call. That might look rather suspicious.

[Edited on 6-23-2006 by Hook]

Bruce R Leech - 6-23-2006 at 02:34 PM

Hook I don't think you would last very long if you were a investigator on that case.:o

Hook - 6-23-2006 at 02:37 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Dave
Gringos: Those who aren't packing are emulating the ostrich.


What do you suggest we bring down, Dave, to match the firepower of 70 guys with AK-47s? :?:

I think I'll emulate a chameleon and bring something down that seems to protect those close to the action.

Maybe a Hobart meat slicer.............????

Bruce R Leech - 6-23-2006 at 02:41 PM

4 down and about 5000 to go

Amazed

Baja Bernie - 6-23-2006 at 05:32 PM

Did anyone read the two links I provided on something that is far scarier than four cops getting their hair parted.

That is American gangs who are enlisting in the Marines so that they can learn new weapons and military tactics that no police department can stand up against.

Talk about heads in the sand.

Hook - 6-23-2006 at 05:58 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Baja Bernie
Did anyone read the two links I provided on something that is far scarier than four cops getting their hair parted.

That is American gangs who are enlisting in the Marines so that they can learn new weapons and military tactics that no police department can stand up against.

Talk about heads in the sand.


I read it, Bernie.

I feel so much better about Baja now.:bounce:

Bob H - 6-23-2006 at 06:24 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Hook
Quote:
Originally posted by Dave
Gringos: Those who aren't packing are emulating the ostrich.


What do you suggest we bring down, Dave, to match the firepower of 70 guys with AK-47s? :?:

I think I'll emulate a chameleon and bring something down that seems to protect those close to the action.

Maybe a Hobart meat slicer.............????


Bring down the non-toxic stuff that kills ants!

Bruce R Leech - 6-23-2006 at 07:11 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Baja Bernie
Did anyone read the two links I provided on something that is far scarier than four cops getting their hair parted.

That is American gangs who are enlisting in the Marines so that they can learn new weapons and military tactics that no police department can stand up against.

Talk about heads in the sand.


I read it . the Marines will straiten the out. boy are they in for a surprise.:lol::lol:

Bruce

Baja Bernie - 6-23-2006 at 08:01 PM

and so are those who continue to place their heads in the sand---Perhaps that is best--how do you cut off the head when it is buried.

The Monguls knew! And guess what--they are from the same area as the Al Quida.

Mexico's Cartels Escalate Drug War

BajaNews - 6-24-2006 at 12:54 PM

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-behead23...

Gangs enlist militias, whose tactics include beheadings, in battles over smuggling routes.

By Richard Marosi
June 23, 2006

TIJUANA ? The caller painted an ominous scene: A convoy of 40 vehicles carrying 70 heavily armed and masked men was prowling the streets of Rosarito Beach on Tuesday evening. The three police officers who arrived were quickly abducted. The next morning, their mutilated bodies turned up in an empty lot.

Their heads were found in the Tijuana River later that day.

The assault is believed to be one of the largest in Baja California, and is the latest in a series of precisely executed paramilitary operations that have beset Mexican cities as drug cartels escalate their battles to control key smuggling routes.

With Mexican authorities relying more heavily on the military to combat drug smuggling, traffickers have responded in kind, forming large forces of assailants and arming them with frightening arrays of weaponry.

In April, nearly two dozen heavily armed men tried to assassinate Baja California's top-ranking public safety official in a shootout on a Mexicali street. The attackers fired grenades and more than 600 rounds from assault weapons, wounding three bodyguards.

Over the last year, commando-style raids have been regular occurrences in Tijuana, with convoys of masked gunmen snatching victims from restaurants and street corners in brazen daylight raids.

"It's a disturbing manifestation of the latest drug war frenzy?. The militarization of the drug war in many ways on the side of law enforcement has corresponded with the militarization of tactics and personnel on the criminal side," said David Shirk, director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego.

The situation, Shirk added, "has heightened the competition and raised the stakes in a way that has led to extreme violence, at a level we have not seen before in Mexico."

In Nuevo Laredo, on the Texas border, a raging turf war between the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels has killed more than 230 people in the last 18 months.

The defection of an anti-drug commando unit, the Zetas, from the Mexican military to the Gulf cartel in the late 1990s paved the way for military-style assaults, experts say.

Federal officials say they killed or captured the original group, but they believe jailed Gulf cartel leader Osiel Card##as still has at least 120 cadres trained by the Zetas at his command as recently as last August, and increasingly is using them to battle the rival cartel led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

But the violence is not limited to cities along the U.S.-Mexico border. In Apatzingan, in the central state of Michoacan, four men were killed and a police officer and four bystanders wounded in an Aug. 18 shootout between rival drug gangs that involved dozens of paramilitary gunmen in 10 vehicles.

Two weeks earlier, police in nearby Uruapan, also in Michoacan, had arrested a group of 10 suspected drug gang members armed with AK-47s and AR-15s.

Cartels also are using increasingly brutal methods to intimidate their enemies. The Rosarito Beach beheadings followed the decapitation in April of a police commander in Acapulco, whose head was found in a public plaza.

Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, the top organized crime prosecutor in the Mexican attorney general's office, has taken over the investigation of the Baja California beheadings. In an interview for today's editions of the Mexico City newspaper El Universal, Santiago said the abductions and beheadings were characteristic of the brutal Central American-based Mara Salvatrucha gang, which has become increasingly involved in the Mexican drug trade.

"Acts like the ones we have just seen are manifestations of groups related to the Maras," he said. "We have seen the phenomenon of decapitation in El Salvador, a brutal act of intimidation that is occurring here as drug gangs are worn down and resort to recruiting this kind of group."

Jeffrey McIllwain, a criminal justice professor at San Diego State University who studies border security issues, believes the violence is a sign that pressure from law enforcement is affecting the cartels' bottom line.

"The fact is that it has hurt operations, severely in some cases ? so it makes sense that the cartels would step up their game," McIllwain said.

In Baja California, the crime wave could signal an escalation of the fierce war to control the lucrative Tijuana smuggling corridor, which traditionally has been controlled by the Arellano-Felix cartel. Several top-ranking members of the cartel have been killed or arrested in recent years, and other cartels may be sensing weakness, experts say.

Some recent attacks were shocking for their audacity, experts say. Last month, three men armed with AK-47s stormed into the Mexican federal attorney general's office in Tijuana and shot two agents, killing one. In December, assailants attacked the Tijuana home of a state police commander, killing two of his bodyguards. In October, Tijuana's chief of homicides narrowly escaped an attack by assailants who fired more than 50 bullets at his car.

"It's a more aggressive form of violence, with new ingredients," said Victor Clark, a border expert and director of Tijuana's Binational Center for Human Rights.

Memorial services held for three slain officers

BajaNews - 6-24-2006 at 12:56 PM

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20060624-9999-1m24...

By Anna Cearley
June 24, 2006

ROSARITO BEACH ? The sounds of police sirens wailed through this seaside community yesterday as officers escorted the caskets of three officers to and from memorial services at a church, City Hall and the police station.

The officers, who were found beheaded this week, were hailed by the city's mayor, Antonio Macias Garay, for ?giving their lives to guarantee the security and peace of our citizens.?

Many questions remain about who was behind the ambush and abduction of the officers, and about the death of a civilian who was with the officers at the time of their disappearance Tuesday.

U.S. authorities, reviewing the man's criminal records, found that Rodolfo Aguilar Masforroll, 31, a Mexican citizen, had a string of arrests for mostly minor violations, including a recent one for firearm possession. However, information on whether he was charged or convicted wasn't immediately available.

It's unclear whether Aguilar was killed simply because he was with the police officers at the time of their abduction. The slayings are the most gruesome in recent years and have prompted speculation that they are the result of competition among drug cartels that create their power base by aligning with certain police.

However, few local officials will talk about the case publicly because of the high stakes. The city's director of public security referred inquiries to federal authorities.

In Mexico City, the nation's top organized-crime investigator, Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, told Mexican media that the horrific style of killings appeared to be the work of Mara Salvatruchas, a gang with ties to El Salvador that is said to be providing services to a drug ring in the Mexican state of Sinaloa.

Rosarito Beach's director of public security, Valente Montijo Pompa, downplayed the suggestion that Mara Salvatruchas was involved.

?I would like for him to tell me why he says this,? Montijo said, though he acknowledged that the killings were committed by an organized-crime group.

Montijo said his department, which conducts patrols and refers investigations to other police agencies, isn't empowered to do more than respond to crime reports.

?This is organized crime, and they are groups more powerful . . . than we can deal with, and it's time that someone of a higher level takes the obligation of dealing with this,? he said.

The three officers and the civilian were abducted Tuesday when they went to investigate a report of a possible kidnapping in a remote part of the city, according to a police report. They found themselves surrounded by about 40 cars and 70 people. Their bodies were found in Rosarito Beach the next day, and their heads were discovered in Tijuana.

The Tijuana weekly Zeta, which reports extensively on drug crimes, published a story in yesterday's edition that Aguilar allegedly had been selling firearms to the Rosarito Beach Police Department. Montijo said the report, based on unnamed sources, wasn't true.

U.S. authorities had previously deported Aguilar. Mexican authorities initially identified him under another name and said he had met Montijo and one of the slain officers in Phoenix, and had come to the area to visit them.

Montijo said Aguilar was a construction worker.

Yesterday's services started at a local church, where a priest told the crowd that death is not the end for those who believe in the path of God.

The caskets holding the bodies of Ismael Arellano Torres, 36; Jes?s Hern?ndez Ballesteros, 42; and Benjam?n Fabi?n Ventura, 35, were followed by weeping family members. One of the officers was to be buried locally, but the others were to be flown to their home states.

Beheading in Rosarito may be linked to Mexico's Elections

BajaNews - 6-24-2006 at 12:57 PM

http://publicbroadcasting.net/kpbs/news.newsmain?action=arti...

By Amy Isackson
KPBS SAN DIEGO (2006-06-23)

The beheading of three Rosarito policeman and one civilian earlier this week could be an act of election time cleansing by drug cartels, according to one San Diego academic who has sources close to the action. KPBS Reporter Amy Isackson has details.

The men were abducted by a heavily armed convoy. The next day, their bodies were found in a vacant lot in Rosarito. Their heads were discovered miles north in Tijuana.

Many say the murders are the latest battle in the drug cartels' war to control key drug smuggling routes.

Jeffery Mc Illwain who studies border security at San Diego State University suspects the violence could also be tied to Mexico's July second elections.

Mc Illwain: "Because there's no civil service protection like we have here in the Unite States, many people that are prosecutors, judges police officials will all lose their jobs or they might have other people who will come in and replace them. As a result of that the cartels that have influence with the incoming regimes or the outgoing regimes may find it necessary to clean house for the individuals they've been working with."

The assault was one of the largest in Baja California history. Amy Isackson, KPBS news.

Massacre Still Casts Its Shadow in Mexico

BajaNews - 6-24-2006 at 01:04 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by BajaNews
http://publicbroadcasting.net/kpbs/news.newsmain?action=arti...

...The assault was one of the largest in Baja California history.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&am...

'98 Killings Revisited as Violence Grows

By Kevin Sullivan
February 1, 2004

ENSENADA, Mexico -- Viviana woke at 4 a.m. to the sound of a struggle outside her room.

"Don't move or I'll kill you!" she remembers a man yelling that morning in 1998, and she realized that the intruders had already seized her parents and her 4-year-old brother.

"Is there anyone else in the house?" a man shouted. She heard her mother say no.

Viviana, recalling that night recently, said she hid behind a dresser. She was 15, seven months pregnant and terrified. One of the men walked into her room. She said she prayed over and over, "Please God don't let him see me." Then he left.

Minutes later she heard long sprays of gunfire. The killers, hit men out to settle a score with her father involving drugs, according to the police, had pulled 19 members of her extended family out of their beds, lined them up against a wall and executed them.

The killing on the family's ranch here, 60 miles south of the U.S. border in Baja California, set a new benchmark for brutality and remains one of the country's most notorious drug-related massacres. The dead included Viviana's father, mother and younger brother, six other children and a woman who was eight months pregnant.

"Every time I close my eyes I see it all over again," said Viviana, now 20, discussing her experience publicly for the first time.

The Sept. 17, 1998, Ensenada massacre, with its unprecedented slaughter of women and children, is back on the minds of many people here because of a new wave of brutality by drug traffickers.

The violence, which has increased sharply since the 1980s, has reached new peaks recently. Scores of people have been killed along the U.S-Mexico border and up and down this country's well-worn smuggling corridors. Pressured by a new law enforcement offensive, warring gangs have been killing at a frenzied pace.

Analysts said nearly 100 people were killed in January. More than half of them were in Sinaloa state, which faces Baja across the Gulf of California and is often called the cradle of the Mexican drug trade. The region has averaged two murders a day since Jan. 1.

"They are killing like never before. It is now a little Colombia," Jesus Blancornelas, editor of the Zeta newspaper in nearby Tijuana, wrote Tuesday after 11 corpses were found buried in a yard in Ciudad Juarez, on the border with El Paso.

Since President Vicente Fox took office three years ago, government officials said they have made more than 24,000 drug-related arrests, including the powerful drug lords Osiel Card##as Guillen and Benjamin Arellano Felix. Officials say the recent surge of bloodshed is a mark of success, as decapitated cartels are fighting desperately to reposition themselves.

But critics said the crackdown has not slowed the flow of drugs. "It has only created tremendous violence," said Mariclaire Acosta, Fox's former top adviser on human rights.

Beyond the killing and the cascade of sensational headlines is a cost that human rights advocates say is largely forgotten. They say thousands of families -- of drug dealers, police, soldiers, prosecutors, witnesses and innocents caught in the crossfire -- have been destroyed. Years of killing have produced many survivors such as Viviana, whose lives have been changed forever by violence they did nothing to cause.

"They are the invisible victims of a war," said Victor Clark Alfaro, a human rights activist in Tijuana.

Earlier this month in Tijuana, Rogelio Delgado Neri, 43, a former state prosecutor, was gunned down by cartel assassins in a popular restaurant. The slaying dominated the news for a week. Clark said there was almost no mention that Delgado, his close friend, left behind an 8-year-old daughter and a pregnant wife. He said it was impossible to calculate the long-term damage to them: the psychological scars, the loss of their only source of income, the hard job of making a new life.

"The victims are never part of the story," Clark said.

Five years after the Ensenada massacre, the struggle continues for those who survived and for the 10,000 residents of El Sauzal, the little seaside suburb of Ensenada where the killings occurred.

"You can never leave it behind. It is a pain that never heals," said Linda Ramirez Bela, 64, Viviana's grandmother, a sad-eyed woman who wept softly as she described how she lost two sons and 17 other relatives in those few violent minutes.

Only Viviana and her 11-year-old cousin, Mario, survived the massacre. When the killers opened fire, Mario was shot twice but survived by pretending to be dead.

Mario, now 17, left school after the seventh grade, Viviana said. He has rarely been able to talk about what happened. She said Mario spends most of his time in a village where there is no television, no telephone service and little contact with the world. There, amid vast expanses of cactus and scrub brush, he passes his days tending cattle and horses.

Viviana, a young mother studying law at a university, was able to discuss the massacre at length without obvious emotion. A pretty woman with a gentle, round face, she said she is still too shaken by the experience to have her full name published.

The ranch, known as El Rodeo, sits abandoned except for a caretaker and her family, who live in one of the three main houses. Their front door is studded with bullet holes; the lock, blasted open by a large-caliber bullet, has been left shattered.

Weathered pieces of yellow police tape are stuck to the wall where the shooting happened, and to the garage doors in one of the houses. The concrete patio is chipped and gouged where bullets struck. The main gate is chained and locked.

"People are still worried," said Ana Maria Tovar, another family member. "There are still so many drug dealers out there. It continues and continues."

El Rodeo ranch was owned by Viviana's father, who police said was a small-time marijuana smuggler. They said he was one of many low-level smugglers working in territory controlled by the powerful and violent drug cartel run by brothers Benjamin and Ramon Arellano Felix.

Viviana said she does not believe her father was involved in drugs. She said she doesn't know why her family was targeted. But she said it was possible it was only a robbery that got out of hand.

Authorities said they were sure the massacre was drug-related. A top law enforcement official involved in the case said the 15 or so killers were from a gang that worked with the Arellano Felixes.

Ensenada police officer Jorge Argoud, one of the first to arrive at the ranch, said he has never been the same since he peered over the wall and saw the bodies.

"When you see a dead person in a car accident, it's one thing," Argoud said. "But when you see so many dead people -- a pregnant woman, a baby -- you don't know how to handle it."

A spokeswoman for the federal attorney general's office said at least 10 men were arrested in connection with the killings but declined to provide details about the outcome of their cases. She said the alleged leader of the killers, Lino Portillo Cabanillas, hanged himself in prison a year ago.

Viviana said she hopes the killers are punished, but she doesn't dwell on their fate. She tries to concentrate instead on her baby, born two months after the massacre, and on her studies. She wants to practice criminal law, an interest she said was piqued by being a victim of crime.

Asked how often she still thinks about what happened, she answered immediately, with a cool, level gaze.

"Always," she said. "All the time."

Baja California Village Remembers Massacre by Drug Kingpins

BajaNews - 6-24-2006 at 01:11 PM

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,47884,00.html

March 14, 2002

EL SAUZAL, Mexico ? As the fog drifted in, the slap of wet cement and the clunk of stones filtered from the seaside cemetery where workmen repaired a gap in the old stone wall.

Three years had passed since the wall was knocked down so a bulldozer could enter to dig a plot big enough for all the bodies. Seven were buried together that day ? 19 people were killed in all ? in what officials say was a gruesome message from the Arellano Felix brothers.

The surviving villagers were so stunned that they put off repairs at the cemetery. "It just broke our hearts to go up there," said Ana Maria Tovar, who lost nine relatives. "It hurt too much. Nobody wanted to go."

Now a tranquil fishing village, El Sauzal is believed to have suffered the wrath of Mexico's most violent drug gang under Ramon Arellano Felix. Allegedly the top enforcer of what is sometimes known as the Tijuana Cartel, Ramon Arellano Felix raised the savagery of Mexico's drug violence to another level, using unmeasured violence to ensure the dominance of his family's business.

Mexican and U.S. officials believe they have finally broken the organization.

Mexican prosecutors said Wednesday that DNA testing confirmed a man killed Feb. 10 in a shootout with Mexican police in the Pacific coast city of Mazatlan was Ramon Arellano Felix, one of the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives. His brother Benjamin, considered the overall leader of the gang, was arrested Saturday.

A 1999 Drug Enforcement Administration report said about 300 murders in Mexico and the United States had been attributed to the Arellano Felix gang. The massacre in El Sauzal, 60 miles south of the U.S. border near Ensenada, was considered the gang's most savage display of violence before the cartel quieted because it was drawing too much attention.

On Sept. 17, 1998, gunmen raided El Sauzal, rousting men, women and children from their sleep after a festive night of Independence Day celebrations. Some wearing T-shirts and shorts, others in pajamas, nine children and 11 adults ? including a pregnant woman ? were packed tightly along a wall and riddled with bullets.

A 15-year-old girl hidden nearby listened to the shooting, waiting for the killers to come for her next. She and a 12-year-old boy ? who played dead under the pile of bodies ? were the only survivors.

Among the dead was Fermin Castro, a man described by officials as a minor-league drug smuggler who paid more powerful traffickers for the right to move air shipments of marijuana.

Gen. Guillermo Alvarez, who was in charge of anti-drug operations for Mexico's Federal Judicial Police at the time, said the four suspected gunmen arrested after the attack had connections to Ramon Arellano Felix, who allegedly controlled all significant movements of drugs through Baja California.

Alvarez and federal prosecutors said Castro was killed to stop his marijuana-smuggling operation from becoming too competitive.

"These people were vicious, cold-blooded killers, particularly Ramon and the people he surrounded himself with," said Dan Thornhill Jr., a DEA agent who followed the gang for nearly two decades. "They wouldn't think twice about killing children."

The Rev. Laurence Joy went to the sprawling ranch compound after the massacre, hoping to pray over the bodies. But soldiers refused to let him in before they were taken away. He said he will never forget the amount of blood covering the patio. The pool drying in the sun was an inch thick in some places.

"The idea that people were brought to the same spot and methodically killed, that type of cruelty was something I had no experience with. It was shocking to me," he said.

The caskets filled Joy's humble church.

"We had to be innovative with the cement blocks to position the caskets nicely in front of the altar. There were children and adults. It was too much," said the Irish Catholic priest, shaking his head and then continuing: "Too much sadness, too much grief, too much anger, too much frustration. It was a case of surviving the day."

Many of the victims' families are still surviving the pain day by day.

Ana Maria Tovar, who lives down the hill from the cemetery, buried nine of her family members, including her niece who was eight months pregnant. Tovar recently asked workers to build a small fence and plant a garden around the giant burial plot.

"I hope what comes around, goes around, but we are still left with the horror, the anger," she said. "I still can't watch the news about it. I still don't understand it."

Jose Torres, 72, said it's best not to try to sort out the reasons for the carnage. Torres lives next door to the compound but was off working in California when the massacre occurred. He saw the tragedy on the news and came home to find his two nieces among the dead.

"Only the killers know what really happened," he said. "But you don't mess with those things. What for? It won't bring them back."

[Edited on 6-24-2006 by BajaNews]

Mexican Crime Scene Paints Picture Of Killers Carrying Out Orders

BajaNews - 6-24-2006 at 01:13 PM

http://www.laprensa-sandiego.org/archieve/september25/crime....

September 25, 1998
By Mark Stevenson

EL SAUZAL, Mexico - The killers arrived in three light trucks before dawn, dressed all in black and carrying automatic rifles.

They worked quickly, professionally. And when they were done, 18 men, women and children from one extended family lay dead in bleeding mounds beside a patio wall at the ranch by the sea in northern Mexico.

``The children said that it lasted an eternity - an hour,'' said state Cmdr. Felipe Perez Cruz, quoting testimony of a 12-year-old boy and 15-year-old girl who survived the Thursday morning massacre linked to drugs. ``It was probably 15 or 20 minutes.''

Statements by investigators and a tour of the bloodstained compound a day after the killings provide signs of a well-organized team carrying out orders to kill an alleged marijuana trafficker and his relatives for some unknown crime against rivals in the drug trade.

After driving across a dusty plain, at least nine or 10 gunmen got out at the ranch this suburb of the Baja California resort of Ensenada. The killers broke into three teams, each assigned to one of the family's three houses. ``They must have known the family,'' Perez Cruz said.

First hit was the Tovar family household, headed by a sister of alleged trafficker Fermin Castro - apparently the main target. The Tovar family was the only part of the Castro clan not believed to have been involved with drugs, investigators say.

One team went through a downstairs window in the Tovar house, in the middle of the compound. Micaria Jaime Tovar, eight months pregnant with her second child, her 1-year-old nephew Cesar and four other family members were taken to the patio, probably at gunpoint.

A second team entered the house of Francisco Flores Altamirano, Castro's brother-in-law and alleged lieutenant in marijuana smuggling. The last team went after Castro, who local media say was known as ``The Iceman.''

While the first and second teams gathered half-dressed couples and pajama-clad children in a corner of the patio in the early morning chill, the third team raced up an exterior staircase and battered or shot in a third-story doorway in Castro's house.

Castro was caught in his second-story bedroom, where he was beaten and possibly tortured. Two days later, Castro lay in a coma with gunshot wounds to the head, barely alive.

It was unclear whether he was taken to the patio, where the victims were closely packed together against a cinderblock wall. His wife and 2-year-old son were among those killed there.

Normally, the story would have stopped with the gunmen issuing a warning that would have been respected under a code of silence so strict that ``you can't get a word out of these people,'' federal investigator Jose Luis Chavez says.

Traffickers' relatives - and especially children - are rarely targeted in drug-related paybacks in Mexico.

But something was different this time.

Perez Cruz said the killers may have been in an ``altered state'' - drugged or emotionally upset. Or the killers may have been following little-used rules about punishment for those who switch sides in drug gangs, local media say.

Still closely huddled together, toddlers beside their mothers, they were ordered to get down on the cold concrete. Neighbors woke when bursts of automatic weapons fire shattered the early morning quiet at 4:15 a.m.

``There weren't finished off one by one. They simply sprayed them all with bullets,'' Perez Cruz said. Eighty spent shells, an average of four bullets per victim, were later found.

Mario Alberto Flores, 12, miraculously survived. Losing blood, he wandered about Castro's home until he was found by his cousin, Viviana Flores, 15, who was never discovered by the killers. The girl, six months pregnant, had hidden between a table and an armoire.

There were no signs of struggle in the houses or on the patio. Apparently no weapons were kept at the compound.

Inside Castro's house, a pile of video tapes lay on the living room floor, some clothes on the back of a couch. Washing hung limply on clotheslines outside.

Ten people have been detained in the border town of Tecate, east of Tijuana, for questioning after the discovery of guns similar to those used in the killings, authorities said Friday. But the detainees have not been formally arrested.

The crime scene offers no clues for the killers' motive. The killings remain as mysterious as the lone trail of bloody footprints leading away from Castro's house.

A bare, right foot imprinted in blood starts to flee, wavers and finally disappears just steps from the back door.