Tijuana shootout weapons tied to other crimes

April 29, 2008 6:40 PM PT

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Weapons seized after one of the bloodiest gang shootouts in Baja California history have been linked to several high-profile murders and assassination attempts in recent years, Mexican authorities said Tuesday.

Authorities found 60 weapons in the aftermath of Saturday’s gun battles that left at least 13 gunmen dead in Tijuana. Ballistics tests determined that some had been used in the killings of two immigrant safety officers earlier this year in Tijuana and last year’s assassination attempt on the police chief of Rosarito Beach.

The arms were also linked to a shootout at a Tijuana restaurant that claimed the lives of two agents and two bystanders, and to a bizarre November incident in which gunmen raided the Ensenada morgue to steal the corpse of a suspected cartel leader who died in the Baja 1000 off-road race.

In all, the weapons were linked to at least 9 slayings, officials said.

Authorities still haven’t determined a motive for the weekend attack, though they suspect it stemmed from a dispute between rival cells of the Arellano-Felix drug cartel, which has long controlled drug trafficking in Baja California.

—Richard Marosi in Tijuana

La Plaza

Richard Marosi

Richard Marosi is a former Metro editor for the Los Angeles Times. He previously reported from the U.S.-Mexico border. Marosi was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2015 for his series on Mexican laborers and in 2013 for his stories on the fate of thousands of immigrants who were deported from the U.S. to Mexico in recent years. He has delved deeply into Mexico’s drug wars, producing a groundbreaking series on the Sinaloa cartel and sharing an Overseas Press Club Award in 2009. In the early 2000s, his corruption investigations in Southeast Los Angeles County contributed to the indictment or ouster of a dozen politicians and city officials. Marosi is a Southern California resident but remains loyal to the Giants, 49ers and Warriors of his native San Francisco Bay Area.