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5 inmates shoot their way out of Tijuana prison
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20040415-9...
2 reportedly have drug-cartel links
By Anna Cearley
April 15, 2004
TIJUANA ? Mexican authorities were searching yesterday for five men who escaped from a state prison in a shootout that seriously wounded a prison
guard.
One escapee, H?ctor Flores Esquivias, was linked to the 1998 slaughter of 19 people in a drug trafficking feud in Baja California, authorities said.
Another escapee, Luis Alberto Salazar Vega, was connected to the January 2002 kidnapping of a U.S.-born man who managed to escape and alert
authorities. Two city police officers were killed while pursuing the suspects in that incident.
Flores and Salazar are suspected of working for groups that have ties with the region's most powerful drug traffickers.
The other escapees were identified as Luis Ch?vez Garc?a, Jorge Ruvalcaba Verduzco and Fausto S?nchez Gonz?lez, all being held for crimes such as
murder and kidnapping.
Details of the escape were sketchy. State authorities said two armed inmates working in the prison's clinic forced their way out about 7:45 a.m.
yesterday, fleeing with three others to a car outside the prison. A shootout ensued between prison guards and people in the car, which reportedly was
stolen in Chula Vista.
Authorities said the wounded guard was in serious condition in a local hospital.
"The system is improving, but usually the prisoner escapes take place with complicity of others," said Victor Clark, a Tijuana-based human rights
activist.
La Mesa prison has had a reputation for lawlessness and corruption. In 2002 authorities cracked down on the community of prisoners who had built a
mini-city inside, and many of the more serious offenders were sent to the modern El Hongo facility east of Tecate.
State officials said some of the men were in La Mesa prison instead of El Hongo because they were going to be making court appearances soon in
Tijuana.
Three guards are facing charges in the escape of several prisoners last year from La Mesa prison. Alejandro Parra, sub-secretary for the state
penitentiary system, said it was too early to say if that was the case in yesterday's escape.
The escape also raised questions about who was behind such a well-planned effort. While authorities wouldn't talk publicly, one theory circulating was
that the region's weakened Arellano F?lix drug cartel was trying to recoup some of its jailed gunmen.
At the time of Salazar's arrest in 2002, he was working with a group that had ties to the Arellanos, according to sources and local media.
Flores was among 11 suspects who Mexican authorities said also worked for a group that had ties to the Arellanos.
The suspects apparently went to a ranch in El Sauzal intending to take possession of some drugs as payment for a debt, Mexican authorities said at the
time. An argument escalated into a massacre of members of three families living at the ranch. The dead included an infant, a pregnant woman and her
unborn baby.
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Anonymous
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Baja fires prison administrators as suspicious escape is probed
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20040417-9...
By Anna Cearley
April 17, 2004
TIJUANA ? Two top La Mesa state prison administrators were fired this week as authorities investigated the possible involvement of prison employees in
a well-orchestrated escape Wednesday morning.
Prison director Adolfo Mill?n Tapia was replaced by Francisco Jim?nez G?mez, and prison guard commander Armando Flores Arreola was replaced by Ernesto
Silva Fraustro, state officials said.
Questions have been raised about how some of the five escapees obtained guns inside the prison.
Two of the escapees were working in the prison's clinic, which gave them closer access to exits. They were dumping medical waste when they used guns
to subdue guards. They were joined by three inmates from other areas and fled to a waiting car outside the prison.
"This would not have taken place if there hadn't been internal corruption," said Baja California Gov. Eugenio Elorduy Walther.
Elorduy called the unidentified corrupt workers "a few black sheep who denigrate their co-workers in selling out and allowing that this escape took
place."
One guard was wounded in the escape, which escalated to a shootout as people in the waiting car fired at prison guards.
Among the escapees was a man linked to the 1998 slaughter of 19 people in the Baja California community of El Sauzal. The others also were serving
time for murders and kidnappings.
Several of the escapees had ties to the Arellano F?lix drug cartel, fueling speculation that the escape was orchestrated by the cartel. Because of the
escapees' backgrounds, federal authorities have taken over the investigation from state police.
In yesterday's edition of the Tijuana weekly Zeta, editor Jes?s Blancornelas, who did not cite any sources, reported that all five had an Arellano
connection.
Blancornelas writes extensively on the Mexican drug wars and often does not name his sources because of the danger to their lives.
Blancornelas also wrote that the escapees were helped by gunmen known as "Los Zetas," who have been working for drug trafficker Osiel Card##as along
the border south of Texas. Card##as was imprisoned last year, and his organization is fighting off rival groups. A tie between him and the
also-weakened Arellanos would mark a new alliance in the drug world.
Blancornelas reported that the January killing of former state prosecutor Rogelio Delgado Neri was because of his refusal to release the five
prisoners who escaped.
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JESSE
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Registered: 11-5-2002
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I know one of the guys, hope he doesnt get killed.
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