Drug-war violence hitting Rocky Point

Although Mexico's drug violence mostly stops at the border, it is rapidly creeping into formerly immune Sonoran tourist towns frequented by Americans.

A Sunday night gun battle in Puerto Peñasco, known to American visitors as Rocky Point, dramatically illustrates the problem — and includes an Arizona connection.

According to El Sol de Caborca and other Mexican news sources, 41-year-old Leonel Fonseca Carrillo was confronted by three gunmen in the parking lot at Vina del Mar Hotel, in a tourist zone known as the Malecón. Fonseca Carrillo, also armed, was hit by four bullets in the ensuing firefight. Police rushed to the scene, and Fonseca was taken by ambulance to a hospital.

Thirty minutes later, a group of armed men stormed the emergency room, ordered medical workers and police officers to the floor, then completed the assassination of Fonseca.

A source told the Rocky Point News that the gunmen also abducted a brother of the victim before fleeing the emergency room. An unidentified corpse was found later near the tourist village of El Golfo de Santa Clara.
Mexican media reported that the gunmen fled in a 2004 Chevrolet Blazer with Arizona license plates.

On the Web site known as borderreporter.com, Tucson journalist Michel Marizco reports that there have been more than a half-dozen suspected drug murders in Rocky Point during 2008, compared with none in previous years.
--Dennis Wagner

Thursday, August 6, 2009

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/LiveWire/59636