Officials investigate latest Tijuana killing spree; six bodies dumped

By Anna Cearley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

September 20, 2006

TIJUANA – Mexican authorities are investigating the slayings of six men whose bodies were found dumped around Tijuana yesterday.

The latest killing spree follows the discovery of seven dumped bodies Friday night and Saturday morning. One of those victims was a Mexican federal police investigator.

Drug groups often are behind such killings, and the recent surge of dumped bodies comes about a month after U.S. authorities arrested suspected drug cartel leader Francisco Javier Arellano Félix and other suspected members of the region's Arellano Félix cartel.

Some U.S. and Mexican investigators say the Arellanos are going after rivals and people who have betrayed them. A note left near one group of bodies found last week indicated they were killed for being traitors.

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Tijuana officials seek army intervention

Recent killings may be caused by drug cartel
By Anna Cearley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

September 22, 2006

TIJUANA – A string of killings is plaguing Tijuana a month after U.S. authorities detained suspected drug kingpin Francisco Javier Arellano Félix, and some authorities are taking the violence so seriously that they have called on the Mexican army to help restore order.

The latest victim was a city police assistant chief, Arturo Rivas Vaca, who was in his patrol car when he was gunned down about 8 a.m. yesterday. Jorge Eduardo Ledezma Magallon, a police officer who was Rivas' bodyguard, and Luis Francisco de Santiago Ferrer, a bystander, were injured in the attack, according to Luis Javier Algorri Franco, the city's secretary of public security.

Vaca was the fifth law enforcement official to be killed this month, an unusually high number for such a short time frame. None of the deaths has been officially linked to the Arellano Félix drug cartel.