[SD Union Trib] MEXICO CITY — A recent killing spree in Tijuana could have been lifted from a TV script: enraged drug lords hunting down corrupt police officers who stole a drug shipment. Two of the officers suspected of the theft have been killed, prosecutors say. But so have at least three other officers, according to the city’s former police chief, suggesting the cartel believed to have owned the drugs may have launched a generalized retribution.
| The cache of drugs appeared to have belonged to the Sinaloa cartel, specifically the wing controlled by drug lord Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, probably the most powerful gang in town. |
It is the latest blow for Tijuana which has the most homicides of any city in Mexico, with about double the number of the place that comes second — the border city of Ciudad Juarez. Tijuana, situated in the border state of Baja California and with a population of over 2.1 million, has for several years seen around 2,000 murders annually. By comparison, Houston, Texas, which has about the same population, saw 435 killings in 2022.
According to prosecutors, in mid-November, a half-dozen local and state police officers in Tijuana allegedly hatched a plot to steal a large shipment of drugs from a warehouse where traffickers were storing it. |