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Assailants grab man from club in Tijuana
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20050506-9...
Officials suspect organized crime
By Sandra Dibble
May 6, 2005
TIJUANA ? Even for this crime-weary city, it was a shocking event: A team of more than 10 heavily armed assailants, masked and dressed in black,
stormed the exclusive Club Campestre in full daylight and grabbed a man from the entrance.
For many, Wednesday's abduction points to the audacity of criminal groups operating in the city. It also has forced open a dispute between city and
state officials at a time when a spike in violent crime has led to calls for greater police response.
The victim, Ivan Escobosa, apparently had been with a friend, trying to flee his pursuers, and drove into the country club's compound about 5 p.m. But
the assailants forced him into one of their vehicles and drove off.
Baja California Attorney General Antonio Mart?nez Luna has linked the incident to organized crime. Investigators said yesterday that no calls for
ransom had been reported by family members.
The criminals "are defying the fragile police authority that exists in the state," said Victor Clark, director of the Binational Center for Human
Rights and a longtime observer of law enforcement agencies and organized crime.
With its tennis courts, swimming pool, golf course and restaurants, the Club Campestre is a meeting place for Tijuana's elite, not for armed
commandos. Adolescent girls make their social debuts here on their fathers' arms. Society couples celebrate their nuptials, and young matrons gather
for baby showers. The club's strict admissions policies bar those even suspected of links with drug traffickers.
The abduction at the Campestre "is shocking, but it's no less shocking that it happens in any respectable place in Tijuana," said Jos? Mar?a Larroque,
a member since birth and an attorney with the firm Baker & McKenzie.
The crime was spookily similar to last week's abduction of a man from a restaurant in Tijuana's upscale Rio Zone. The victim, Adolfo Fregoso Eibeck,
had an extensive U.S. criminal record on drug-related charges. His beaten and strangled body was found two days later.
The organized crime unit of the Baja California attorney general's office is investigating both abductions. "We can't say if there is a relationship
between one event and the other," said Mar?a Teresa Valadez, head of the agency's Tijuana office, said yesterday.
But Escobosa's mother called Tijuana radio stations yesterday morning to defend her son, saying he owned gas stations and was not involved in illicit
activities. Ivan Escobosa is about 35, authorities said.
The Campestre abduction follows weeks of unusually high levels of violence in the city. In the first four months of this year, Tijuana recorded 163
homicides, which amounts to nearly half of last year's total of 355. In April alone, there were 55 homicides, compared with 18 in April 2004,
according to the attorney general's office.
The crimes are nothing new, Clark said, describing them as part of the cycle of violence and relative calm that began in the 1990s with the rise of
the Arellano Felix drug cartel in Tijuana.
Clark says the weakening of the cartel with the deaths and arrests of its top leaders has led to the splintering into numerous small groups that are
now on the loose in the city. "There is not one person with sufficient authority to control all of them," he said. "It's become an extremely complex
scenario."
Tijuana's secretary of public safety, Ernesto Santillana, said on Tijuana television Wednesday that the masked assailants appear to be ex-police
officers from all three levels of government ? city, state and federal. "These are very professional people," he said Wednesday on Channel 12's
"Notivisa" news program.
The Tijuana municipal police is a preventive agency and usually the first to respond to crimes. State and federal agents are charged with
investigating crimes. Divisions among law enforcement agencies have long been an issue in the city but rarely addressed openly by public officials.
The friction between the city and the state was evident on Wednesday's "Notivisa" program as the top law enforcement officials of both entities spoke
out in live interviews.
"Why weren't there patrol cars in places where there normally are?" asked Mart?nez, the Baja California attorney general, suggesting that municipal
police had responded too slowly to both recent abductions. "Why did they delay in responding to the emergency call?"
Santillana said his officers were at the Club Campestre within six minutes of the call. Asked about coordination among city, state and federal
agencies, he responded, "definitely, there is none."
"Only in perfect coordination among the three levels of government can we overcome this," he said.
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Beaten body found after Baja kidnap
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20050508-9...
By Sandra Dibble
May 8, 2005
TIJUANA ? The body of a man abducted last week from an upscale country club was found early yesterday.
Ivan Escobosa appeared to have been asphyxiated and beaten and his corpse dumped near a major thoroughfare, authorities said.
A team of masked and heavily armed assailants took Escobosa, 34, from the lobby of the Club Campestre, where he had apparently sought refuge Wednesday
after being followed. Conducted in broad daylight off a busy road, it was the second highly visible abduction in a week.
Francisco Castro Trenti, a lead investigator for the Baja California Attorney General's Office, said Escobosa's corpse showed signs of asphyxiation
and bore marks of having been beaten. The body, with a yellow bag over the head, was found off the Via Rapida Poniente.
Authorities said all signs pointed to a link with organized crime. The style of the abduction and the fact that family members were not asked to pay a
ransom had many fearing the worst.
On April 27, a similar abduction occurred at the Carnitas Quiroga Restaurant in Tijuana's well-to-do Rio Zone, next door to the federal courthouse.
Two days after Adolfo Fregoso Eibeck was kidnapped, his body was found beaten and strangled. Fregoso had an extensive criminal record in the United
States, and an outstanding warrant on a drug smuggling charge.
Baja California law enforcement officials have connected Escobosa to the "narco-juniors," sons of prominent Tijuana families who became involved with
the Arellano Felix drug cartel. However, Escobosa's mother told a Tijuana radio station last week that her son owned gas stations and was not involved
in crime.
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