BajaNomad

Calimax family member shot and killed in TJ this a.m.

BajaNews - 1-23-2009 at 01:58 PM

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jan/23/bn23fimbr...

By Omar Millán González
January 23, 2009

TIJUANA — A member of one of the most prominent business families in northern Mexico was shot to death early Friday in what may have been a kidnapping attempt, state authorities said.

Rafael Fimbres Hernández, 57, was shot in the chest while driving his car in the exclusive neighborhood of Lomas Hipódromo about 7:30 a.m., the state Attorney General's Office reported.

He then crashed his Audi A4 into another car and was barely alive when police arrived. He was transported to the General Hospital, where he was declared dead.

The state agency said its investigation would focus on the attack being a kidnapping attempt, something the victim's family confirmed at the hospital. The family declined to comment further.

The victim was the nephew of José Fimbres Moreno, whose family founded one of the city's first supermarkets, called Calimax, in 1949.

Over the decades, the family built a business empire that now includes more than 100 supermarkets and Smart and Final franchises in Baja California and Sonora.

The family is iconic in Baja California, where it also founded private educational institutions.

José Fimbres Moreno, who died last year at 78, worked to improve the city's image. That image has been battered in the last year as drug cartels have carried out a bloody war to control trafficking routes in the border region.

That conflict, and the Mexican government's effort to quell it, resulted in a record number of murders in the city last year, 843, and unleashed a wave of kidnappings.

Probably a warning

Dave - 1-23-2009 at 02:35 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by BajaNews
TIJUANA — A member of one of the most prominent business families in northern Mexico was shot to death early Friday in what may have been a kidnapping attempt, state authorities said.


Or retaliation for not paying protection. You don't kill the goose before she lays the golden egg.

Many wealthy TJ families are on a monthly 'insurance' plan. After this news there will probably be many more.

Business is good. ;D

tjBill - 1-23-2009 at 03:57 PM

Too bad. He was prominent member of Tijuana society.

BajaGringo - 1-23-2009 at 04:11 PM

I believe that he is the son of Gilberto Fimbres with whom I have had the pleasure of sharing a round of golf with several times. If you ever play at Campestre he is the elderly gentleman with the customized golf cart that looks like a white car. He is always wearing a Greg Norman like hat.

Very nice family that have contributed much to the local area. A true tragedy. My sympathies to them.

QEPD...

Woooosh - 1-23-2009 at 06:00 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Dave
Quote:
Originally posted by BajaNews
TIJUANA — A member of one of the most prominent business families in northern Mexico was shot to death early Friday in what may have been a kidnapping attempt, state authorities said.


Or retaliation for not paying protection. You don't kill the goose before she lays the golden egg.

Many wealthy TJ families are on a monthly 'insurance' plan. After this news there will probably be many more.

Business is good. ;D


That's a fact. I have talked with two people who tell me their families pay $3000 per month. Insuance is how Mr Three Letters makes his pocket money the easy way. Usually they follow you, pull your car over, let you know exactly who they are and what they want, and then let you go back home. From then on you pay and pay to keep you and your family members alive.

A couple had the same thing happen a few weeks back in a Mercedes SUV. They took the man and killed the wife.

woody with a view - 1-23-2009 at 06:05 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by BajaGringo
I believe that he is the son of Gilberto Fimbres with whom I have had the pleasure of sharing a round of golf with several times. If you ever play at Campestre he is the elderly gentleman with the customized golf cart that looks like a white car. He is always wearing a Greg Norman like hat.

Very nice family that have contributed much to the local area. A true tragedy. My sympathies to them.

QEPD...


i guess the cartel already knows this?

CaboRon - 1-23-2009 at 06:20 PM

Don't quite understand why you would kill the kidnapee :?:

CaboRon

Woooosh - 1-23-2009 at 08:21 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by soulpatch
You would think for that kind of money those families could form a collective and start killing off predators.
Quote:


That's a fact. I have talked with two people who tell me their families pay $3000 per month. Insuance is how Mr Three Letters makes his pocket money the easy way. Usually they follow you, pull your car over, let you know exactly who they are and what they want, and then let you go back home. From then on you pay and pay to keep you and your family members alive.

A couple had the same thing happen a few weeks back in a Mercedes SUV. They took the man and killed the wife.


There's no pride in being an extortion victim. It's demoralizing, makes you doubt your ability to protect your family and will ruin your life- even if you have the money and do pay. They have regular cost-of-living increases- so they keep in touch with you. There aren't ways for victims to find "clean" channels (cop-prosecutor-judge-jailkeeper) so people really don't know what to do , where to go, or how even to start. Even a neighbor you trust may tell the wrong person down the line and you'll be worse off. I have a family friend who sold his hardware store in TJ and moved the whole family to Jalisco rather than pay or live in fear and shame. A year later they moved back. This is nothing new.

When my neighbors talked with me about their extortion they were mentally exhausted from thinking about how they were targeted. Although the family has decades in town with many good friends- they felt they had no one they could turn to for help on this. The bads guys know there is no Batman downhere and they prey on the fear many Mexicans have of their neighbors true intentions (very paranoid). JMHO though.

BajaGringo - 1-23-2009 at 08:55 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by woody in ob
Quote:
Originally posted by BajaGringo
I believe that he is the son of Gilberto Fimbres with whom I have had the pleasure of sharing a round of golf with several times. If you ever play at Campestre he is the elderly gentleman with the customized golf cart that looks like a white car. He is always wearing a Greg Norman like hat.

Very nice family that have contributed much to the local area. A true tragedy. My sympathies to them.

QEPD...


i guess the cartel already knows this?


Don Gilberto is a very social and public person. There is no secret about that...

Hook - 1-23-2009 at 09:25 PM

Where's Pato to explain to us how Calderon was behind this killing?

Me like it!

Dave - 1-23-2009 at 09:26 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by soulpatch
Get some.....


Someone finally grew a pair.

DENNIS - 1-23-2009 at 10:04 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Hook
Where's Pato to explain to us how Calderon was behind this killing?


Who's Pato?

BajaNews - 1-24-2009 at 12:53 AM

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jan/23/bn23tjdea...

The attorney general, who said he will personally lead the investigation, said Fimbres was not being kidnapped when he was slain. Further, the homicide was not the work of organized crime, Moreno said. Investigators are still seeking a motive.

Woooosh - 1-24-2009 at 09:13 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by soulpatch
Get some.....


Great idea- maybe there will be a a Batman to save TJ afeter all!

That's because...

Dave - 1-24-2009 at 11:32 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by BajaNews
Further, the homicide was not the work of organized crime, Moreno said.


The AG doesn't want to acknowledge that kidnapping is a part of organized crime. It's a big secret. An even bigger one on the U.S. side. ;D