Rafael Lopez Cruz, a state judicial police agent, is murdered. Lopez Cruz had complained of narcotics corruption in the ranks and had provided prosecutors and journalists with details on what he said were ties between judicial police and the Arellano Felix drug cartel.
August 1996: Veteran narcotics prosecutor Jesus Romero Magana is gunned down outside his home in Tijuana by killers he appears to have known.
March 1995: A gunman kills Jorge Alberto Duarte Castillo, director of the La Mesa state penitentiary. Investigators believe that inmate gangs may have ordered the murder as revenge for crackdowns on guns and drugs in the prison.
April 1994: Tijuana Municipal Police Chief Jose Federico Benitez Lopez is murdered. His death is officially attributed to drug traffickers.
May 1993: Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo and six others are killed in an airport ambush triggered by a dispute among warring drug cartels. Authorities believe the cardinal was a victim of mistaken identity in the attack.
\o7 Source: Los Angeles Times files\f7
Compiled by Jacquelyn Cenacveira / Los Angeles Times
