BajaNomad - Calimax heir murdered in Tijuana

Calimax heir murdered in Tijuana

arrowhead - 1-4-2010 at 09:56 PM

Just coming across the wires. José Fernando Labastida Fimbres, 17 years old, and grandson of Gilberto Fimbres, the founder of the Calimax chain, was killed in a botched kidnapping attempt in an upscale area of TJ.

Woooosh - 1-4-2010 at 10:10 PM

It's so sad these cowards often prey on children for kidnappings and extortions. You'd think running drugs would be lucrative enough without having to ruin the people's ability to live without fear.

AFN is reporting the boy and his friend were in their black Audi. The boys house is very close to the TJ Mayor's and Baja Governor's in the same guarded neighborhood.

[Edited on 1-5-2010 by Woooosh]

Idiots

Dave - 1-4-2010 at 10:40 PM

This kids parents should have their heads examined. The boy shouldn't have even been in Mexico let alone Tijuana. Letting him and a friend drive around TJ...with NO BODYGUARDS?

Really stoooopid.

Mexicorn - 1-4-2010 at 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by arrowhead
Just coming across the wires. José Fernando Labastida Fimbres, 17 years old, and grandson of Gilberto Fimbres, the founder of the Calimax chain, was killed in a botched kidnapping attempt in an upscale area of TJ.

One of the other Fimbres was killed last year in TJ. This is getting out of hand.
Thanks Nancy for the update-

WHAT A CRYING SHAME

ELINVESTIG8R - 1-5-2010 at 06:48 AM

noproblemo2 - 1-5-2010 at 06:48 AM

Very sad for the family. And the question of WHY him, what did these cowards hope to achieve.....

capt. mike - 1-5-2010 at 08:12 AM

what is Calimex?

DENNIS - 1-5-2010 at 08:17 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by capt. mike
what is Calimex?

Calimax....a large chain of grocery stores.

BajaGringo - 1-5-2010 at 10:33 AM

I have had the pleasure to have played several rounds of golf with Don Gilberto at Campestre in years past - truly a sad day for the family and Baja. My condolences.

rhintransit - 1-5-2010 at 11:05 AM

amen.
parents shouldn't have to have their heads examined when their children are killed, either.
blame the criminals, not the victims.

Quote:

Originally posted by audiobaja
What is a shame is people shouldn't have to be that smart to avoid being kidnapped or murdered.

I Wonder

Bajahowodd - 1-5-2010 at 11:09 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Woooosh
It's so sad these cowards often prey on children for kidnappings and extortions. You'd think running drugs would be lucrative enough without having to ruin the people's ability to live without fear.

AFN is reporting the boy and his friend were in their black Audi. The boys house is very close to the TJ Mayor's and Baja Governor's in the same guarded neighborhood.

[Edited on 1-5-2010 by Woooosh]

Given the totality of the situation, are the thugs deciding that it's easier and not as dangerous to make a buck by kidnapping the wealthy, or are they just not related to the cartel people. It is sadly interesting to note that, as was mentioned earlier, this is not the first such incident to befall the Fimbres family. Any chance it could be related to business practices or labor issues?

JESSE - 1-5-2010 at 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dave
This kids parents should have their heads examined. The boy shouldn't have even been in Mexico let alone Tijuana. Letting him and a friend drive around TJ...with NO BODYGUARDS?

Really stoooopid.

agreed

Fool me once...

Dave - 1-5-2010 at 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bajahowodd
as was mentioned earlier, this is not the first such incident to befall the Fimbres family. Any chance it could be related to business practices or labor issues?

Regardless of reason, kidnapping of the wealthy is epidemic in Mexico. This boys family knew this and apparently did little to protect him. They share equal responsibility for his death.

JESSE - 1-5-2010 at 12:35 PM

Most owners of medium to large busineses in Tijuana i know, have left. Some stay, but only because they pay a monthly "fee" to the cartels in order to not be bothered. Problem is, there is more than one cartel, and some independent operators, so its not a 100% sure thing you will be safe.

If i was the Fimbres, why be in Tijuana? why have your family running around a violence infected city? maybe after two deaths from their clan they will reconsider living in a city that eats its own.

Woooosh - 1-5-2010 at 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dave

Quote:

Originally posted by Bajahowodd
as was mentioned earlier, this is not the first such incident to befall the Fimbres family. Any chance it could be related to business practices or labor issues?

Regardless of reason, kidnapping of the wealthy is epidemic in Mexico. This boys family knew this and apparently did little to protect him. They share equal responsibility for his death.

Maybe- but when the police are actvely working WITH the kidnappers- things get very complicated...

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/04/seven-tijuana...

Woooosh - 1-5-2010 at 03:06 PM

Student Killed in TJ Shootout

This is the same boy from the Calimax family killed during the botched kidnapping yesterday? You;d never know it from this article. Says he went to a private school in CA. How much more will the people allow before they save Mexico? They have to move from being passive-aggressive to very active aggressive before nothing is left to save...

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local-beat/Student-Killed-in...

Bajahowodd - 1-5-2010 at 05:05 PM

I dunno. But an article that I recently read basically said that , at least on mainland Mexico, the people are more interested in being able to live their lives as before, and wish this carnage would all go away. It was basically slanted toward the idea that it was the Calderon government's fault that all this carnage has occurred. It gave me the distinct impression that the general feeling in Mexico is that if the cartels were not murdering and pillaging their communities, then the government should let well alone. Considering the election in 2012, I would have wonder what the line is in Vegas for the PAN to hold on to the presidency.

[Edited on 1-6-2010 by Bajahowodd]

JESSE - 1-6-2010 at 01:13 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by audiobaja

Quote:

Originally posted by Dave

Quote:

Originally posted by Bajahowodd
as was mentioned earlier, this is not the first such incident to befall the Fimbres family. Any chance it could be related to business practices or labor issues?

Regardless of reason, kidnapping of the wealthy is epidemic in Mexico. This boys family knew this and apparently did little to protect him. They share equal responsibility for his death.

"apparently"?!?

That's a pretty gigantic leap of imagination. First, in a Mexican family, you might have 20 or 30 grand children to protect. Second, trying to police and protect a 17 year old male is going to be f'n difficult regardless. They all think they're invulnerable and none want to be babysat.

The Fimbres are worth at least 200 million dollars, what might look like something difficult to regular folks, is not to them.

Mater Dei student slain in Mexico

BajaNews - 1-6-2010 at 04:16 AM

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/05/mater-dei-stu...

By Sandra Dibble, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
January 5, 2010

Like many other well-to-do young residents of Tijuana, José Fernando Labastida Fimbres crossed the border daily to attend private school in San Diego County. But yesterday, José was missing from classes at Mater Dei Catholic High School in Chula Vista.

José, a 17-year-old junior, was gunned down gangland-style Monday afternoon in Tijuana’s Chapultepec neighborhood. The assailants fired 59 shots — 39 of them from an AK-47 rifle — at José at 4:30 p.m. as he sat inside his black Audi parked near his house.

He was one of six homicide victims reported Monday, the latest in a renewed wave of violence that has gripped the city in recent weeks, most of it perpetrated by rival criminal gangs targeting each other’s members. The great majority of crimes have taken place elsewhere in the city, not in the hillside enclave of the city’s elite.

José was a member of one of Tijuana’s most prominent families. The Fimbres family is known for its Calimax supermarket chain and philanthropic acts. José’s maternal grandfather is Gilberto Fimbres, one of the chain’s current owners.

Rommel Moreno Manjarrez, Baja California’s attorney general, said yesterday that investigators have uncovered no motive for the killing. But Moreno said the teen was clearly targeted: “It was a direct act against him.”

The killing brought out hundreds of mourners for a Mass last night. They packed the aisles of Espiritu Santo Catholic Church in the heart of Chapultepec and crowded the surrounding streets with newer cars.

“It is just a horrible sadness, what is happening to our city that people are killing themselves in such a manner?” Yolanda Enriquez de la Fuente, a former member of Tijuana’s City Council, said as she walked out. “How can this happen in our city? Many families are suffering this way.”

A year ago, José’s uncle, Rafael Fimbres, was killed with a single bullet while resisting a robbery attempt blocks from the spot where the teen was shot repeatedly. His uncle’s killers were caught.

Yesterday, friends remembered José as an ardent golfer who regularly played at Club Campestre in Tijuana and participated in tournaments. At the church altar, someone had placed an empty golf bag, and fellow golfers attending the service carried golf clubs in their friend’s honor.

“He was a fantastic golfer, he played since he was a little kid and liked it so much,” said José Favela, 16, who attends St. Augustine High School in North Park. “He gave me some tips so I could play better.”

Inside the church and outside, young mourners hugged each other and cried. Two girls sat by a photograph of José Labastida, caressing it.

“He’s an awesome child, the best, this was just a tragedy,” said a Mater Dei classmate, a 16-year-old girl named Malissa who crosses the border every day to attend school. She did not want to give her last name, and neither did another friend, Luis, 17, a student at St. Augustine.

José “was a great guy, what can I tell you? He didn’t deserve this,” Luis said.

The Gull - 1-6-2010 at 07:09 AM

This doesn't sound like a botched kidnapping attempt.

arrowhead - 1-6-2010 at 08:32 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by The Gull
This doesn't sound like a botched kidnapping attempt.

Quote:

Five recent executions in Tijuana, reportedly tied to organized crime, included the death of a teenager who lived in Tijuana and attended a private school in San Diego.

Jose Labastida, a junior at Mater Dei Catholic High School in Otay Mesa, lived with his family in Tijuana. His family owned the Calimex chain of grocery stores throughout Mexico.

Precautions had been taken to protect Labastida from becoming a ransom target but on Monday, outside a relative's home in an upscale neighborhood, more than 50 bullets were fired into a car with Labastida inside.

Thomas Clayton Beecher, President of Mater Dei, said he doesn't know how many of the bullets hit Labastida.

According to news reports in Mexico, the shooting may have been triggered by a botched kidnapping.
The FBI in San Diego monitors kidnappings involving U.S. citizens in Mexico and has seen an important change over the past few years.

"So, you had a lot of kidnappings involving bad guy on bad guy, but that changed and they started targeting innocent civilians," said the FBI's Darrell Foxworth. "People that were not involved in any criminal activity whatsoever."

The killing was one of five separate murders in Tijuana according to ElUniversal.com.mx.

Among the other killings, a restaurant security guard was shot and killed by men in a passing car in the area of Del Bosque.

A federal police officer told the Spanish-language newspaper that the head of another victim was found in a tunnel next to the Mexicali-Tijuana Highway. The body has not been recovered.

And while none of the other killings appears to involve tourists, the FBI says everyone should be aware of the problem.

"It's all about just knowing where you're going and paying attention to your surrounding," said Foxworth.

Beecher said Labastida was a great golfer and was hoping to play on the school's team this year. He transferred into Mater Dei last year.

Counselors were on hand at Mater Dei Tuesday to help students cope with the news. Many could not believe the news. "He was funny. he was quiet at times, but he was a sweetheart," said one student.

A memorial service is planned at the school Wednesday.

Some of the precautions used to protect Labastida included using a different last name than his grandfather who started the grocery stores, and also using someone else's picture on his facebook page.

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local-beat/Student-Killed-in...

Mexicorn - 1-6-2010 at 08:53 AM

Nancy- thank you for the valuable update.
Thanks to those posts I learned a new word "Muckracker."
Thanks again Nancy and Gulley all the more reasons to move through TJ as quick as possible while enroute to my casa on the beach. It's to easy to get caught in the cross fire of something like this. Also after the murder of one of the family in a botched kidnapping attempt last year why didn't the family just move to the US they realized they had been targeted. The kid who was shot was going to high school in Chula Vista.

Viva Obama!

ELINVESTIG8R - 1-6-2010 at 08:58 AM

VERY EFFECTIVE

Dave - 1-6-2010 at 09:51 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by arrowhead
Some of the precautions used to protect Labastida included using a different last name than his grandfather who started the grocery stores, and also using someone else's picture on his facebook page.

and...It saved the family from spending any of its vast fortune.

The good news is that they still have their money. :rolleyes:

Woooosh - 1-6-2010 at 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by The Gull
This doesn't sound like a botched kidnapping attempt.

I agree. Not even close to a kidnap attempt. It was an arranged hit- which makes it even more inconceivable the family didn't know it was in harms way- again.

I had lunch with a TJ insider yesterday who said the boy had a bodyguard nearby who was also killed. It's hard to collect ransom once you spray the body with dozens of bullets from an AK-47.

Why these uber-rich Mexican families stay in TJ I'll never know- not that they aren't being targeted on the San Diego side too though. No place to hide I guess.

DENNIS - 1-6-2010 at 10:35 AM

Get the rich out of town? What sense does that make. The criminals will just start targeting the next level on the economic scale.
This kind of makes tourism a hard sell when the locals, non-combatants by the way, don't want to be there. It deflates the claims that the war is amongst the cartels.

Well...

Dave - 1-6-2010 at 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by audiobaja
That's why Phoenix is the new kidnapping capital of the world. It's not Americans kidnapping Americans.

There's no law that Tijuaneros have to move to Phoenix.

I'd suggest Amarillo.

JESSE - 1-6-2010 at 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by audiobaja
Still, it seems callous to judge these folks when their child was brutally murdered. It's simply not possible to protect yourself from a large group of people with machine guns, without living inside a fort and thereby defeating the entire purpose of life and money.

IOW what's the point of being judgmental about this? Does it make people feel superior to call people stupid for being unable to prevent an assassination? Talk about Monday morning quarterbacking.

Obviously you don't know the region, or the family. Dave is making a valid point considering the situation up north. The Fimbres are one of the wealthiest families in Tijuana, a prime target for kidnapping. THEY know they where at risk, so why stay in Tijuana? since most wealthy families left many years ago to San Diego, or at least, sent their families to San Diego, i can't along with most people that know the area and its people, understand why they stayed and decided it was ok to let the whole family live and mingle in a city that's full of criminals that just want to take a shot at you.

I know a few other families that are doing this, and i think its just a matter of time before things go wrong.

Somebody in that family made a desition to stay, and he has a lot of responsability for the outcome. Specially, when you have the money, resources, etc, to keep your family safe.

Gotta Agree

Bajahowodd - 1-6-2010 at 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Woooosh

Quote:

Originally posted by The Gull
This doesn't sound like a botched kidnapping attempt.

And it should be noted that the boy's late uncle was apparently killed while resisting a botched robbery attempt. However epidemic kidnappings for ransom are in Mexico and many other countries around the world, it just seems to me that in this case, it was either random, or retaliation.

SDRonni - 1-6-2010 at 01:15 PM

As a person who has lost a child, though not to violence, I empathize with the grief this family must be feeling. My sincere condolences go out to them.

ELINVESTIG8R - 1-6-2010 at 10:13 PM

I would like to see some people in Tijuana rise up and start cells of vigilante groups that would go around throwing heinous criminals and kidnapper's bodies over bridges with a rope around their necks just dangling there with a warning message to other kidnappers. That would sure curb some of it.

DENNIS - 1-6-2010 at 10:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ELINVESTI8
I would like to see some people in Tijuana rise up and start cells of vigilante groups that would go around throwing heinous criminals and kidnapper's bodies over bridges with a rope around their necks just dangling there with a warning message to other kidnappers. That would sure curb some of it.

A 50 Caliber "Neighborhood Watch" program would be nice to see.

ELINVESTIG8R - 1-7-2010 at 06:27 AM

Dennis I would also like to see a few neighborhood watch people with "Bloopers" [Grenade Launchers] for those who never heard the word "Blooper" before. It makes that sound when fired. "Bloop" "Bloop" "Bloop"

Edit: Making corrections!

[Edited on 1-7-2010 by ELINVESTI8]

BajaGringo - 1-7-2010 at 07:05 AM

My guess is that the family has paid to find the perps before the cops do. If successful we will never hear anything more about it...

Mexicorn - 1-7-2010 at 07:15 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by JESSE

Quote:

Most have moved to Bonita. Why Hell Arreanos's wife and kids were living there. Still?

ELINVESTIG8R - 1-7-2010 at 07:20 AM

I hope who ever they pay catches them and throws their bodies over bridges with a rope around their necks and leave them dangling there with a warning message to the other kidnappers. :fire:

wessongroup - 1-7-2010 at 10:32 AM

Really scary, ELINVESTI8 and I think along the same lines when it comes to "justice"

k-rico - 1-7-2010 at 05:19 PM

From "Killing Pablo" by Mark Bowden

"What was needed was some extralegal muscle, some hands-on players who didn't mind crossing the lines of legality and morality that Pablo so blithely ignored. The drug boss certainly didn't lack for bitter enemies, but they had no commonality. They ranged from some of the wealthiest and most power families in Bogota to rival street thugs in Medellin and Cali. What if someone were to give them a push, some organization, some money, some intelligence, some training, planning, and leadership......?"

Los Pepes

Mexican style?

Woooosh - 1-7-2010 at 05:46 PM

... and how did that work out for Columbia so far?

Bajahowodd - 1-7-2010 at 05:50 PM

Vigilantism has a major downside. Lack of control. As frustrating as the situation is, just look to the Taliban in Afghanistan as an example of what might happen. It's a choice between the devil you know and the devil you don't.

k-rico - 1-7-2010 at 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Woooosh
... and how did that work out for Columbia so far?

Well Pablo was killed within a year. He ran out of hiding places (friends). The CIA and Delta Force were instrumental after the president of Colombia gave them the green light.

But American noses still need to be packed, so it continues.

Watch for Arrowhead's schadenfreude posts tomorrow about Tuesday's TJ events. Maybe Los Pepes are needed.

[Edited on 1-8-2010 by k-rico]

wessongroup - 1-7-2010 at 07:47 PM

With thoes numbers in involved it's not going away..

Think this happened with another "drug" in the United States .. it did not work, so they repealed the law..

We all know the issues associated with the substance.. however, it has been used by individuals for a very long time... a very long time...

With the money spent on the "war", the Governments could just buy the stuff, and still have enough left over to build hospitals, for the individuals who, if lucky, get to rehab.. I don't like the concept but trying to change ones "wants" and "desires" does not seem to work very effectively in an open society

[Edited on 1-8-2010 by wessongroup]