Slayings in Tijuana down from 2008

But December becomes deadliest month of 2009

By Sandra Dibble, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Friday, January 1, 2010 at 12:01 a.m.

As 2009 closed, violence once again claimed lives in Tijuana this week, including that of a state auto theft investigator found beheaded hours after he was abducted from his home, two men shot to death outside a tire store and a man killed at a taco shop.

Despite the surge in violence in the year’s final days, Tijuana’s 657 killings in 2009 represent a 20 percent drop from 2008, when Tijuana registered a record 844 homicides.

Still, authorities struggled to explain a renewed increase in killings in December. With 124 murders, it was the year’s most violent month and saw the resurgence of such gangland practices as decapitations and cryptic messages left at crime scenes.

“The great majority of deaths can be attributed to organized crime,â€