Drug gang shootout on Tijuana street leaves 13 dead
Rival bands open fire with rifles and automatic weapons on a major thoroughfare. Several others are injured in the latest incidence of drug-related violence in the border town.
MEXICO CITY — Rival bands of drug traffickers clashed in the streets of downtown Tijuana early this morning in a wild and bloody shootout that has left 13 people dead and several injured.
Feuding factions of the so-called Arellano Felix narcotics cartel opened fire on each other with rifles and automatic weapons near a popular shopping mall, authorities said, leaving a trail of corpses, spent shell casings and bullet-riddled SUVs on a major thoroughfare, Boulevard Insurgentes. Earlier reports said at least 15 people had been killed.
The shootout is the latest in a spasm of drug-related violence that has gripped the border town in a year that has so far seen dozens of kidnappings, assaults and homicides, including children gunned down in the mayhem.
The circumstances of today's bloodshed are still unclear. But experts say the recent increase in violence is linked to a federal crackdown on drug traffickers that has strained delicate alliances between gangs that had previously cooperated in the lucrative narcotics trade.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon has sent hundreds of soldiers and federal police to Tijuana and other trafficking hot spots, resulting in several high-profile arrests and seizures of caches of drugs and weapons.
Organized crime has responded with unprecedented ferocity to intimidate informants and police and to punish rivals they suspect of betraying them.
In January, gunmen stormed the home of Tijuana Deputy Police Chief Margarito Saldana Rivera, killing him, his wife and two daughters.
The situation in Tijuana has grown particularly volatile after a Mexican general this week publicly identified more than a dozen high-ranking public officials and law enforcement officers that he alleges are in league with organized crime.
Gen. Sergio Aponte Polito made the claims in an open letter to the Tijuana daily newspaper Frontera, sparking controversy so heated that Tijuana Mayor Jorge Ramos appealed for calm.
marla.dickerson@latimes.com
