Young woman among five shooting victims found in Tijuana

By Sandra Dibble

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

2:18 p.m. March 4, 2008

TIJUANA – A female between the ages of 16 and 18 was among the five shooting victims found early Tuesday on a rural road in eastern Tijuana, the Baja California Attorney General's Office has reported.

The four others, all males, ranged in age from 18 to 30, according a statement from the state office, in charge of investigating the crimes.

The grisly discovery was reported to police about 8 a.m., the Attorney General's Office reported Tuesday afternoon in the first official account of the crime. All the victims had been shot, and one had been handcuffed, the statement said.

Authorities said the scene was littered with more than 150 spent shell casings.

The victims had been laid out next to an unpaved road in a rural southeastern area of Tijuana off of the Bulevar 2000, a new highway that links the city to Rosarito Beach.

The discovery comes amid a spike in violence in the region. The weakening of the Arellano Felix drug cartel in recent years has allowed smaller criminal cells to operate with fewer restrictions, analysts say.