Anonymous - 12-17-2002 at 12:12 AM
(Tijuana) "is the most active, and perilous, tourist destination in the world."
http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/12/16/ctv.missing.tijuana/
Stephanie Jackter - 12-17-2002 at 12:47 AM
Wow. That's a lot of people dying. What a sad story.- Stephanie
JESSE - 12-17-2002 at 12:56 AM
What they fail to say is that a lot of the killings are commited by US citizens as well, the avenida revolution at night is the playground of gang
members from SD and LA, they come here with guns, knives and so on, they get into fights, they kill other rival members.
The Tijuana Police is no angels, but this story is simply distorting reality, in the local newspapers theres a nota roja, where all the deaths
reported in the city are mentioned, and 1 US citizen per day is just not true, maybe it hapens in all of Baja, considering the accidents, the big
retirement community, and all the clinics that give cancer therapy to last resort patients, but they imply that all the deaths are violant, wich they
are overwhelmingly not.
Also i want to mention that a lot of americans come to Tijuana to conduct drug deals, buy drugs or sell weapons, i see it all the time, and they get
into trouble and end up dead, and after that that their families cry out and claim that their relative was clean and honest and only having fun in
Tijuana.
I am goignt o tell you one thing, this guy was found in Zona Norte, and nobody gos to Zona norte if hes not into drugs, weapons or prostitution, if
the cops wanted to get him, they would have taken to a closer place from revolucion where there wasnt a lot of other cops and witnesses.
I think the Tijuana Police is covering up the real killers, probably someone powerful in a cartel.
Anonymous - 12-17-2002 at 10:43 AM
http://www.courttv.com/news/hiddentraces/tijuana/page1.html
Stephanie Jackter - 12-17-2002 at 11:27 AM
All good points except one, Jesse. From what the article stated, I believe it's quite probable that he was beat to death. Where his body was found
is completely logical if they had killed him and wanted to dump the body where it might be found a day or two later, letting any trail go cold. And
the fact that the last place he was seen was in a cop car is a pretty good smoking gun along with the official story turning out to be bologna.
I bet you're right about that statistic of one a day being a little bogus and not really reflecting all deaths whether violent or not. I also thought
when I heard that stat of how many Mexicans get found dead in the deserts around Tucson and Phoenix. Both sides of the border can be pretty dangerous
and many of the hits do involve mafia and gang activity.- Stephanie
Not true
JESSE - 12-17-2002 at 11:28 AM
There where 751 murders in Tijuana in 2001, thats about 2 a day, from this 80% is due to Drug trafficking, and almost 98% of the deaths are Mexicans
nationals.
Where in the world are the 365 additional american deaths?
By the way i got this info from my ex chemist techer, hes the head of the coroners office in Tijuana, and any local newspaper can prove that,
including ZETA, the most awarded newspaper in latinamerica as far as free and truthful.
This is just publicity to hipe up the murder of this young man.
Steph
JESSE - 12-17-2002 at 11:44 AM
Sorry, my past post wsnt mean for you but for anonymous.
I know Zona Norte very well Stephanie, and its very densly populated, people all over the place at all times of the day, theres very little vacant
lots there, and they are small and in the view of thousands of passers by, trust me Steph i am not defending the TJ Police, i hate them like a lot of
people, but ask any local and it dosnt make any sense.
Why take a guy, and beat him to death in a part of town full of people that will have obviously seen you and hear you? on Zona Norte theres no private
area to do this wihtout the whole block and hundreds of people noticing, its impossible.
Why do this when they could have driven to a closer place where they would have privacy and nobody to see them?
So its like saying lets beat up this guy, lest go to down town or main street and do it there instead of doing it in the outsides of the city or at
least a place with big vacant lots and no people, It just doesnt add up. In Zona Norte theres hundreds of other cops all over the place, Local, state,
and Feds, and they dont get along at all and would love to catch another cop doing something like this, why take him to an area where they can easily
be caught, seen, or heard?
I want to make it very clear that i feel very sorry for this mans death, i am sure his family is devastated and i feel for them, but not triying to
defend anyone here i can honestly tell you that what they are claiming just doesnt seem right at all, we here in Tijuana know the tricks and ways of
the cops, and that is NOT how they operate, when someone gets murdered here, right away you can determined who did it by the way and the place they
choose. And what happened to this guy is almost a trademark of a cartel.
I know is hard to ignore what the family is saying, but i know my city, the crime, the way things are done here, and i can honestly tell you that i am
positive that theres a lot more to the story than this.
Lets see
JESSE - 12-17-2002 at 11:47 AM
I have a cop friend thats a capt at the Tijuana Police, iam goign to talk to him and see what the word on the street is.
Bogus statistics
Big Al - 12-17-2002 at 02:51 PM
I don't believe the one a day statistic. I live in San Diego and whenever there is a death south of the border it makes the news. Now I know that
every traffic accident and the like don't make the news but this is a lot of deaths. This statistic has to be skewed greatly. I know TJ can be a
dangerous place, but by this article we would be safer walking the streets of Baghdad.
BajaNomad - 12-17-2002 at 10:25 PM
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20021217/a...
Dec 17
TIJUANA, Mexico - The owner of a chain of Mexican pharmacies was found dead more than two months after he had been kidnapped, despite a US$1 million
ransom paid by his family, police said Tuesday.
Ruy Rodrigo Rodriguez, 46, was kidnapped on Sept. 23 after he left his home in Chula Vista, California and headed to Tijuana. His car was found
abandoned in Tijuana shortly after the kidnapping, and his body was discovered Sunday at the bottom of a ditch on the outskirts of Tijuana, state
police commander Jose Camberos said.
Rodriguez appeared to have been hanged, Camberos said.
His kidnappers had initially requested US$6 million for his freedom, but his family negotiated and paid a US$1 million ransom, Camberos said.
Rodriguez owned the Castaneda chain of pharmacies in Mexico.
[Edited on 12-18-2002 by BajaNomad]
FrankO - 12-21-2002 at 11:30 AM
Sounds a bit Darwinian to me. It also sounds like this guy new he had an issue w/partying. Seems like he got a little too much liquid man on board
and, essentially, when you flock w/the wrong people in a 3rd world country bad things can happen. Fly below the radar. Also, I think that death a day
stat is exaggerated. The media would be all over it. Just look at the media attention that occurs whenever there is an event w/international
travelors.
[Edited on 12-21-2002 by FrankO]
Anonymous - 12-22-2002 at 03:39 PM
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20021222-9999_1m22...
He was Drug Dealer
JESSE - 12-22-2002 at 06:19 PM
The guy was trafficking huge amounts of drugs, and loundering the money in those pharmacies, he got killed because he stoped paying his "narco taxes"
to the cartel.
Hes no white dove.
Do bad business in Tijuana and get killed.
Do good business in Tijuana and no problem.
Army soldier strangled to death in
Anonymous - 1-2-2003 at 11:56 PM
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive...
(01-02) 12:11 PST TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) --
A 20-year-old U.S. Army soldier was strangled to death in this border city, authorities said Thursday.
Pvt. Conrado Salinas of Fontana, Calif., who was assigned to a maintenance company at Fort Irwin, was found dead Dec. 29 outside the Hotel California
in the city's downtown, said Liza Davis, spokeswoman for the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana.
An autopsy determined the cause of death was strangulation, Davis said.
The homicide division of the Mexican state police will conduct an investigation. Officials at Fort Irwin, 120 miles east of Los Angeles, also were
investigating.
FrankO - 1-4-2003 at 03:56 PM
364 more and that'll fill the stated average.
Braulio - 1-8-2003 at 11:54 AM
FrankO -
Well said.
Sr. Anonymous seems to think he has some sort of smoking gun here but really all the article says is that one american a day dies in that part of Baja
- and then it admits that there is no breakdown on the causes of the deaths. I don't know how many americans live in that region but I'd bet there
are easily well in excess of 50 thousand - that's a low guess. If you've seen the long lines people people commuting to work every morning you know
what I mean. Many others are retired people. .Do you suppose that a town of 50 k in the US would have a death a day?
In this case you had a punk who mouthed off to the wrong people in the wrong place. I only feel sorry for the mother.
Braulio
FrankO - 1-9-2003 at 05:04 PM
Hey Braulio, that's one of the reasons I put my name up. I live in San Diego and there is a minimum of one "U.S." citizen per day killed here. Some
deserve it, some don't. We are longtime residents of OB and feel completely safe here. Although bad things happen to good people(being a bombero I see
this often) usually the bad things happen to the people who put themselves in the position where those things occur. There are always
mierde(spelling?wouln't let me use english)-stirrers.
[Edited on 1-10-2003 by FrankO]
Braulio - 1-9-2003 at 05:53 PM
FrankO -
I hate to beat this thing to death but I've been fairly active in the border area of Baja for several years now and I know personally of only one
tourist murder - and that made like 3 inch type headlines in the Mexican papers. Considering the slice of humanity that heads south and the way that
slice conducts itself I think it's amazingly low.
Yeah - you certainly have a lot of robberies and scams going on, but murder of tourists? No - I just don't buy it.
To repeat myself a little here the cuote in the story refers to "deaths" (not killings) of americans in that region of the State - and the headline
misstates it to give the reader the impression that they are refering to tourists in TJ.
One also has to take into account the medical clinics in Baja that serve americans looking for low cost or alternative treatments and the higher than
average number of elderly americans living there.
It just ain't that cut and dried.
Which is why I don't respect journalists much.
Take care man.
Tijuana kidnap-killing linked to drugs, corrupt cops
Anonymous - 2-16-2003 at 12:55 AM
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20030215-9999_1m15...
By Anna Cearley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 15, 2003
TIJUANA ? Corrupt police, organized crime and drugs appear to be factors in last year's kidnapping and killing of a U.S. citizen who owned a chain of
pharmacies in Tijuana, according to Baja California's top prosecutor.
The body of Ruy Romero, who lived in Chula Vista with his wife and children, was found Dec. 14 in a ditch in Tijuana, three months after he was
kidnapped in Tijuana and his family paid $1 million in ransom. He had been beaten and strangled.
At the time, officials would only say that Romero, 36, had received threats prior to his kidnapping. But this week, Baja California Attorney General
Antonio Mart?nez Luna suggested the case involves a complicated web of interests.
Mart?nez said Romero was targeted because he owed money to somebody. He also said Romero, a physician, had apparently been involved in transporting
"synthetic" drugs, although Mart?nez wouldn't provide specifics.
Mart?nez acknowledged that police ? or possibly former officers ? may have been involved in the crime.
"If any officers of any level are involved in any type of crime, they will be held responsible and put in jail ? including the Romero case," he said.
Romero's sister said she doesn't know what to believe and that the family is frustrated at what they see as an inability or unwillingness by
authorities to arrest and convict those responsible.
"Everyone is telling us they are following all these leads, but they can't provide us with any facts on anything," said Leticia Romero.
For example, Romero recently read in a Mexican newspaper that a top federal commander, recently transferred to Mexico City, may have been linked to
her brother's case ? but she hasn't been able to get details or confirmation from Baja California authorities.
She also questioned the ability of federal and state police to conduct a thorough investigation if it means confronting powerful interests such as
organized crime.
"The scapegoat becomes Ruy," she said.
Ruy Romero was the youngest of nine children who grew up on both sides of the border. His mother, a chemist, and his father, a pathologist, were born
in Mexico but raised their children in Illinois where they worked and taught at universities. Later, they moved the family back to Mexico. Most of the
family has since settled in Southern California.
Mart?nez said that authorities are doing what they can to solve the case and that Romero's death shouldn't create fear among U.S. residents who do
business in Tijuana.
"This is (among) one or two cases of people who are involved in something very, very dark and something very strange," Mart?nez said. "If you have a
normal business, the odds are very little of something happening to you."
Leticia Romero disagreed.
"They can attribute it to whatever they want," she said. "It can happen to anyone."
Reported kidnappings in Tijuana declined more than 50 percent in recent years to 11 in 2002, but crime experts say the real number is probably much
higher. Many people don't report kidnappings for fear of jeopardizing the negotiations or because they suspect police are working with the kidnappers.
At least four of last year's reported cases have strong links to organized crime, Mart?nez said, including Romero's.
Romero, who had sought help from authorities after receiving threats, was kidnapped in broad daylight on Sept. 24. He had just left one of his
businesses and was on his way to an appointment when he was snatched from his car in the upscale Zona Rio business district.
His family reported the kidnapping to Baja California police because they wanted to go through the proper channels, but Leticia Romero said that now
she's not surprised to learn that police may have been involved in her brother's disappearance.
"It is a fact, not a surprise," she said. "What they do about it is what interests me."