Anonymous - 5-22-2005 at 11:31 AM
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tijuana22may22,0,457...
The slaying of a police official Saturday is the latest in the region's string of killings, many targeting wealthy businessmen.
By Richard Marosi, Times Staff Writer
TIJUANA ? Waving AK-47 rifles, the black-hooded force of 10 assailants barged into the hacienda-style restaurant at lunch. The team, wearing commando
uniforms, grabbed the co-owner, jumped into a convoy of three vehicles and disappeared.
A week later, 10 men ? wearing similar black outfits ? stormed the swank Club Campestre, snatched a 30-year-old businessman and escaped by crashing
the convoy through the security gate.
The exploits of the Comando Negro, or Black Commandos, are part of a dark season of violence that has set new standards for brazenness and frequency
in this crime-weary city.
Within days of the attacks on April 27 and May 4, the victims ? both businessmen with links to drug trafficking, police say ? were found dead. Both
had been tortured, strangled and shot execution style.
Fueled in part by warring drug cartels, bodies in recent months have been turning up almost daily in empty lots, ravines and streets. Many victims
were mangled by torture, their heads wrapped in tape. Some bodies have been dissolved in tubs of acid. One body, the son of a local magistrate, was
missing its right hand.
Homicides in Tijuana totaled 163 in the first four months of this year, compared with 92 in the same period last year ? a 77% increase.. In April, 55
homicides, a monthly record, were committed, police said. Los Angeles, by comparison, a city more than two times larger, had 36 homicides in April.
Tijuana's crime surge is part of a wave plaguing many Mexican border cities.
On Saturday, Rosarito Beach's top law enforcement official was shot to death outside his home by two masked men. Carlos Bowser, a former Tijuana
police officer who became director of public safety in December, died in his bullet-riddled car. Authorities arrested six suspects and confiscated
three cars in the hours following the killing. Police found guns and masks inside the vehicles.
Raul Gutierrez, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office, said ballistic tests would be performed to see if the weapons matched those used
in the killing. The motive for the attack, about 20 miles south of Tijuana, wasn't known.
"Everyone will speculate ? was he a hero or simply on the wrong side of one of the narco-trafficking organizations. It's always so murky," said David
Shirk, the director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego.
Crime in the Tijuana metropolitan area, Shirk said, has reached unprecedented heights. "This is probably the most bloody period of Tijuana's history,"
he said.
Kidnappings are also a particular problem. One suspected leader of a ring of kidnappers still at large is a former chief of the state police in
Tijuana. Police say abductions of people not linked to organized crime have dropped from 28 in 2001 to two so far this year. But business groups,
human rights organizations and crime experts say the figure is inaccurate, because many families don't report the abductions.
Crime waves are nothing new in this sprawling border metropolis. Previous surges in violence have claimed the lives of politicians, high-ranking
police officials and prosecutors. But some recent incidents have spilled into public places in upscale neighborhoods that in the past had been mostly
free of violent crime.
"The narcos are killing each other off ? that's good. The only problem is: It's happening in broad daylight," said Guillermo F. Gonzalez Smith, the
chief liaison for Tijuana's public safety department.
The murders and kidnappings have prompted the U.S. State Department to issue a travel warning to border areas. Violent crime, for the most part, has
not affected tourist zones or nightlife activity, say Mexican and U.S. officials.
A 57-year-old American woman was killed this month in Rosarito Beach in what appears to be an isolated incident, said Lorena Blanco, a consulate
spokeswoman. Americans, according to the travel advisory, are urged to be aware of the "unsettled public security situation."
In a city with a large tourism economy, Tijuana city officials are scrambling for solutions. Security has been bolstered in popular spots such as the
strip of nightclubs along Avenida Revolucion, where newly installed video cameras scan the streets.
Tijuana Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon, a multimillionaire who owns shopping centers and off-track betting parlors, tried to reassure merchants recently at a
meeting of a local chamber of commerce.
"Any honest citizen shouldn't be worried," Hank Rhon said in an interview, citing statistics showing an overall drop in crime rates.
He blamed the media for sensationalizing recent crimes that he called isolated incidents.
The state attorney general of Baja California, Antonio Martinez Luna, said the murder rate had jumped in part because Tijuana was a fast-growing city
suffering from social ills, such as drug addiction, that plague many communities. His investigators solve most kidnapping and murder cases, he said,
and the vast majority of citizens and tourists are not touched by crime.
"Look at how many people go to restaurants. How many go to shopping centers. How many people on Saturdays and Sundays go to baseball games. How many
people come to play golf. How may people go to so many places, and nothing happens to them," Luna said in an interview.
Other people interviewed from a broad cross-section of society ? taxi drivers, store owners, wealthy businessmen ? said crime had never been worse.
Businessmen have been targeted in a new type of crime: extortion phone calls. Unidentified callers threaten to kidnap family members if they don't pay
large sums of money, typically $6,000 to $10,000. About 100 extortion calls have been reported in the past few months, according to Jaime Valdovino
Machado, president of a local chamber of commerce group.
The crime fears, say merchants and businessmen, are boosting demand for bodyguards. Some families are moving from Tijuana's middle- and upper-class
neighborhoods to San Diego County suburbs, where some commute back to Tijuana in small, old cars that don't attract attention.
Alberto Garcia, the president of the San Ysidro International Chamber of Commerce, which has member businesses on both sides of the border, said some
Tijuana residents felt like "hostages in their own homes."
"They are afraid that if they're dining in a restaurant, someone will come in and either kidnap the owner or kidnap someone dining there also," Garcia
said.
Residents were rattled when the Comando Negro struck in the heart of the city's most upscale neighborhood, the Zona Rio, a popular destination for the
city's middle and upper classes.
At the Carnitas Quiroga Restaurant, where co-owner Adolfo Fregoso was taken April 27, the assailants also stole purses and wallets from several
diners, including two U.S. residents visiting from the San Diego area. The restaurant is around the block from the federal attorney general's office.
In the second incident, Ivan Escobosa was dragged off the staircase entrance to the Club Campestre at an hour when many parents are dropping off their
children for swimming and tennis lessons. A club supervisor said Escobosa's screams were heard in the chandeliered dining room nearby.
The recent crime wave has not been limited to drug wars. A case in early April involved a 15-year-old boy who allegedly killed his sister-in-law and
her three children. After a 49-year-old nurse was slain in her home on April 20, friends and colleagues marched to the state attorney general's office
demanding justice. Two state police officers were shot to death in January. Fearing other officers could become targets, supervisors told police they
didn't have to wear their uniforms.
Much of the violence, say experts and law enforcement authorities, results from the continuing battle for control of the drug-trafficking corridor
through Baja California. With the Arellano Felix drug cartel weakened by arrests and killings, other organizations have been trying to gain control.
Among the people killed in recent drug-related violence, according to police, were the son of a former mayor who was kidnapped in January outside his
home near the beach and a San Diego resident machine-gunned to death April 17 while sitting in his car in the upscale Chapultepec area.
In March, police arrested four men accused of killing 15 people on behalf of the Arellano Felix cartel. At one hide-out, police found acid containers
that they believe were used to dispose of bodies.
The daylight raids by the Comando Negro, some theorize, could be the work of a new group flexing its muscle. Authorities are looking into whether it
has links to local police. The team could be working for any organized crime network vying for control, law enforcement officials on both sides of the
border say.
"Geographically, it's a jewel for these groups, and the Arellano Felix organization is struggling to maintain its power base in Tijuana," said Misha
Piastro, a spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
In most of the recent kidnapping cases, police linked the victims to organized crime. Such incidents ? in which the victims are typically killed
without ransom demands ? are not included in the regular kidnapping totals. But critics, some of them family members of victims, say authorities are
too quick to label victims as drug traffickers.
"Not everyone that dies in Tijuana is because of narcotics trafficking. Many are businessmen. The police say it's narco-related so the citizenry won't
complain," said Manuel Ortez, whose brother-in-law, Jorge Pimentel Mendiola, was kidnapped and killed earlier this month.
Pimentel, a 39-year-old paint supply store owner, had moved his family to National City, near San Diego, after receiving an extortion phone call,
Ortez said. A few days later, he was abducted when he returned to Mexico to meet a client in Rosarito, said Ortez.
The family, after raising a substantial amount of the $500,000 ransom, delivered two bags of cash to a drop-off point, as instructed by the
kidnappers. But a few days later, Pimentel's body was found dumped in a landfill. He had been strangled. Some local media outlets, citing police
sources, said the kidnapping was related to organized crime.
But Ortez said the family recorded the telephone calls from the kidnappers and have receipts of the bank withdrawal for the ransom ? evidence that
shows it was not a gangland-style hit as in so many other cases, he said.
The family remains terrified, he said.
"In Tijuana, if you have a business, you fear growing it. You fear painting your house, because it will draw attention," said Ortez.
Kidnap fears causing some to leave Tijuana
Anonymous - 5-22-2005 at 11:35 AM
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20050521-9...
Frightened families look to S.D. County
By Anna Cearley
May 21, 2005
TIJUANA ? Fear of being kidnapped is prompting some of Tijuana's middle-and upper-class families to move across the border to San Diego County
neighborhoods where they feel safer.
In a recent case, a Tijuana businessman said his family paid several hundred thousand dollars for his release after he was kidnapped this year. The
family never reported the incident to police, he said. Afterward, he and his family decided to move into the county.
"Many friends of mine have already decided to live in the United States ? they are refugees from fear of Tijuana," the man wrote in an e-mail to The
San Diego Union-Tribune. He declined to be identified out of fear of aggravating his kidnappers.
Official statistics that illustrate the situation are nearly impossible to find, mostly because kidnap victims and their families are too frightened
to report the crimes to police, but anecdotal evidence keeps growing:
More houses are for sale in affluent neighborhoods in Tijuana, according to observers of crime trends in Mexico.
Real estate agents in San Diego County, such as those who sell homes in Bonita and Eastlake, say they are seeing more clients from Tijuana.
Experts say more Tijuana residents are concerned that they are vulnerable to kidnapping.
Victor Clark Alfaro, director of the Tijuana-based Binational Center of Human Rights, said more kidnappings have occurred over the past few years,
mainly because drug trafficking groups are finding kidnapping to be a relatively easy way to earn quick cash.
"It's a way to finance their activities," Alfaro said.
In a recent interview with Tijuana's Frontera newspaper, Jaime Valdovino Machado, president of the Tijuana Chamber of Commerce, said the city's
business people "don't feel secure" because of crime and kidnapping risks.
Valdovino wasn't available for comment this week, but other Tijuana business people say people move from Tijuana to San Diego County for many reasons
? not just fear of kidnapping.
"It's a binational culture, and the question of living in Tijuana or not has been around for many years," said Daniel Romero Mej?a, president of the
Consejo Coordinador Empresarial de Tijuana, an umbrella group of business organizations.
He said some of the other factors are education, finances and quality of life.
"I have had the option, but I have never decided to go there because I don't believe I can live better there than here," he said.
Typically, families that make the move have dual citizenship or U.S. residency status through family or marriage.
Nine kidnapping cases were reported to Mexican state authorities last year in Baja California, according to Ra?l Gutierrez, a spokesman for the state
attorney general's office.
But that number is believed to be low because many cases are not reported to police. Family members often are afraid that it would anger the
kidnappers or that local police are in collusion with the kidnappers.
"It's common that one learns when talking with friends of the middle or upper classes that this or that person has been kidnapped, and that's how you
usually find out because they aren't usually made public," Clark said. "The statistics don't reflect the reality."
Clark said he is aware of two recent cases of business people who were kidnapped and released but did not go to police. He declined to give full
details to protect the identities of the victims.
In one of the cases, he said, the family paid $150,000. In the other case, he said, the family paid $1 million ? and then moved north of the border.
That person still maintains his business in Tijuana, Clark said.
Most families don't want to talk about the experience. The kidnappers' method typically is to grab people at gunpoint as they are on the way home or
headed to work. Most of the victims are men.
The Tijuana businessman who contacted the Union-Tribune shared details of his kidnapping but asked that they not be published out of concern for his
safety.
Abraham Cecena, an agent with Prudential California Realty's Chula Vista office, said he is seeing more people from Tijuana moving to places such as
Eastlake and Rancho del Rey.
"It's something that is becoming of greater concern to people down there, especially affluent families," he said. "The crime over there is just
getting out of hand, from what they are telling me, and they don't feel safe."
The communities that people are moving to are the same places where some members of Mexican drug cartels ? who also commit kidnappings and abductions
? live for similar security reasons.
Last year, a man charged with participating in kidnappings for the Arellano F?lix drug cartel was linked to a home in Otay Lakes. Others with ties to
the cartel, such as money laundering suspect Ivonne Soto Vega, have been found to be living in upscale communities such as Bonita.
U.S. law enforcement officials say they also have noticed that kidnappings have prompted people to move north.
Kroll Inc., an international risk consultant, estimates that 3,000 kidnappings occur in Mexico each year. In Latin America, only Colombia surpasses
Mexico, according to the firm.
Those who don't move are taking greater precautions, said Ron Kimball, president of a San Antonio-based company that bullet-proofed 50 cars for
Mexican residents last year.
The company, Texas Armoring Corp., equipped six of those for Tijuana families, Kimball said.
"In almost every case, they have told me that they had a family member who has been kidnapped and rescued by ransom," he said. "Normally, it's people
involved in major industries like banking or ranching."
Armoring a sport utility vehicle can be done in 90 days and costs about $70,000, Kimball said. The idea is to give the driver enough time to survive
an ambush and drive out of danger, he said.
Victor de la Garza, an assistant state attorney who oversees Baja California's organized-crime investigations ? including kidnapping cases ? didn't
return phone calls. If convicted in Baja California, a kidnapper faces 20 to 40 years in prison.
Kidnappings of business people or other residents are typically committed by drug trafficking groups or by rings that specialize in kidnappings.
Those are different from the abductions that drug trafficking groups carry out against rivals, informants or people who owe them money. In those cases
a ransom may be collected, but the person is often killed.
Mexican federal authorities often intervene in cases that have a strong drug link. But sometimes residents turn to them to investigate other kinds of
kidnappings because they see federal agencies as more trustworthy.
An official with the Mexican attorney general's office in Tijuana said federal agents are investigating three kidnapping cases not connected with drug
trafficking groups. The official declined to be named because of the agency's policy against talking with the media.
The rings evade authorities by negotiating on phone lines routed through other cities or countries to make the calls harder to trace. Kidnappers often
leave the community once their job is done.
While most kidnappings last a week to a month ? enough time for the family to negotiate and sell off assets to pay the ransom ? quicker variations
have emerged.
"Express kidnappings" take place when a person is targeted for a smaller amount of money ? such as $5,000 to $30,000 ? and is released within a few
days after the family provides the cash.
Other groups have used extortion to commit "virtual kidnappings" in which a caller demands money from people so that they won't be kidnapped. In 2003,
10 members of Tijuana's business community reported such threats, and some ended up placing as much as $40,000 in designated bank accounts.
Romero said ensuring the safety of the city's business class is important for keeping and attracting investment. He said Tijuana's business leaders
have been meeting with police.
"We need a greater police presence in the area to prevent these kinds of activities," Romero said.