2010 comes to a turbulent end in Tijuana

By Sandra Dibble
Originally published December 31, 2010 at 6:56 p.m.,
updated December 31, 2010 at 7:12 p.m.

TIJUANA — The year ended turbulently in Tijuana, with five homicides registered in a seven-hour period late Thursday, and the dramatic rescue of a kidnap victim on Friday by Baja California agents following a gunbattle that left one suspect dead.

Four suspects were in custody Friday afternoon on the heels of a pursuit and confrontation with members of the anti-kidnapping squad at the safe house in Fraccionamiento Cubillas, a residential area south of downtown.

The Baja California Attorney General’s Office said in a statement that the suspects reported to a gang leader known as Juan Francisco Sillas Rocha, and that his group dedicates itself to killing, kidnapping and drug trafficking.

The kidnap victim was unharmed, they said. He was identified only as a person in the transportation business who was kidnapped on Thursday in eastern Tijuana.

The incidents brought the number of killings in Tijuana in 2010 to 818 by Friday evening, making it the second most violent in the city’s history; the record was 2008 with 844 violent deaths, dropping to 664 in 2009.

While violence in heavily-transited public areas of Tijuana has dropped noticeably in recent months since the capture of key drug gang leaders early this year, killings have continued in what authorities have described as a continuing battle for the domestic drug market in the city. Authorities say that in many cases, the victims are small-time drug dealers.

Thursday’s victims ranged in age from 20 to 35, several of them shot with AK-47 assault rifles used by drug gangs. It was unclear whether any of these crimes were linked, and authorities did not immediately report a reason for the renewed violence.

According to the Baja California Attorney General's Office, the killings began at 5:10 p.m. in a residential development in eastern Tijuana, with a report of a man who had been shot repeatedly; agents counted 62 spent rounds from an AK-47 assault rifle by the body. The victim, who has not been identified, was between the ages of 20 and 25, according to a statement.

Agents also found a small digital scale, and “green and dry herbâ€