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Another Tijuana police official killed
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20050118-1...
January 18, 2005
TIJUANA, Mexico ? For the second time this month, a senior police officer has been shot to death in Tijuana, where officials have long struggled
against violent drug trafficking gangs.
Two men fired more than 60 shots from an automatic rifle on Monday night, killing Hugo Gabriel Coronel, deputy chief of the state police group against
car theft.
Police said in a news release Tuesday that the attackers used two vehicles to chase Coronel from the police station in eastern Tijuana.
One of the drivers finally blocked the path of Coronel's car while the gunmen slid open the door of their van and opened fire.
Only five days earlier, men with automatic weapons ambushed and killed Jose de Jesus Bedoya, the chief of investigative police for Baja California
state, while he was leaving for work.
Authorities say Tijuana is the home base for the notorious Arellano-Felix drug smuggling cartel.
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2nd Baja cop dies in ambush
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20050119-9...
Tijuana's police chief says he's been threatened
By Anna Cearley
January 19, 2005
TIJUANA ? Two killings of Baja California police agents in less than a week have raised concerns that organized crime groups could target more members
of law enforcement.
Hugo Gabriel Coronel Vargas, who was second in command of the state police department's stolen-car unit in Tijuana, was ambushed Monday night as he
left work in his car.
Five days earlier, Jos? de Jes?s Bedolla Garibaldi, who oversaw operations of various state police investigative groups in Tijuana, was gunned down in
his car as he left his house in Tijuana for work.
No arrests have been made in the slayings. State authorities aren't publicly speculating who might be behind the killings, but both attacks bore the
marks of organized crime: the use of powerful assault weapons, multiple assailants and dozens of bullets guaranteed to kill the targets.
Adding to the concern, Tijuana's new police chief, Genaro Carrillo Elvira, has told Mexican media that he has received death threats. He oversees the
separate municipal law enforcement agency.
The killings come at an uncertain time in a city where the alliances and players involved in drug trafficking are rapidly changing.
The Arellano F?lix group has controlled the flow of drugs through Tijuana into the United States for more than a decade, but its power is said to be
waning after the arrests of top leaders and expert gunmen in recent years.
Other drug trafficking groups are believed to be trying to operate in the area without the approval of the Arellanos.
"The laws have totally changed and things have become much more brutal," said Victor Clark, director of the Tijuana-based Binational Center of Human
Rights. "The old ways of doing things have been broken because there are more people involved, and more competition between them."
In the latest edition of Zeta, a Tijuana weekly that covers drug trafficking extensively, editor Jes?s Blancornelas reported that Bedolla may have
been killed because he failed to cooperate with drug traffickers.
During last week's news conference, state officials emphasized that Bedolla, 49, was known to be an honorable agent.
Their repeated accolades of his long-term career with the agency stood in stark contrast to most other news conferences in which the killings of state
agents have been treated more neutrally.
If Bedolla was targeted for being honest, then it would mark a sharp departure from drug traffickers' standard method of operation, which is to stay
away from police who decline to cooperate.
Drug traffickers typically enlist the assistance of certain police officials to guarantee that they can operate with minimal resistance in the region.
The alliances are sometimes made through bribes or threats.
Authorities who fail to maintain their part of the bargain often are targeted, according to current and former law enforcement officials who asked to
remain anonymous because of security concerns.
Clark, who follows drug trafficking trends, said Bedolla's killing could have also been meant as a message to others.
"It may be that they wanted to target someone else, but they couldn't, so they try and get another person to send a message," he said. "It creates
more uncertainty within the police force because those who aren't involved in these sort of things see themselves as being more vulnerable."
Less is known about Coronel's reputation. However, Ram?n Anguis, who is the director of the Baja California state police force, spoke favorably of
both Bedolla and Coronel.
"They are killing our best men, our best agents," he said.
Coronel, 35, was shot about 9:15 p.m. after he left work in his 2003 Volkswagen Jetta. He was blocked from escaping by at least three cars, said state
authorities who counted 59 bullet casings on the street.
As many as 10 people were involved in the attack, said Francisco Castro Trenti, a top investigations official for the state agency. The assailants
used two AR-15 assault rifles and a pistol, and Coronel was hit at least 22 times, Castro said. He died in his car.
Just one bullet casing came from the pistol, Castro said. Coroners were trying to determine if that bullet hit Coronel's head. Organized crime groups
have been known to fire a bullet into the head of a victim even if it is clear he is mortally wounded.
State authorities said they couldn't discard the possibility that the killings of Coronel and Bedolla were connected, but said there wasn't any clear
proof despite rumors that the two may have been involved in detaining several suspected members of the Arellanos in recent weeks.
"We have detained many highly dangerous people. That is part of our job," Anguis said.
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