Thread: Three die in Mexican drug shootout on U.S. border

Three die in Mexican drug shootout on U.S. border

19 Apr 2007 02:44:47 GMT
Source: Reuters

TIJUANA, Mexico, April 18 (Reuters) - Police battled an armed group of drug traffickers in this northern border city on Wednesday in a series of shootouts that left two policemen and one drug gang member dead, witnesses and authorities said.

A first gunfight started at the main Tijuana bus station when police stopped three vehicles as part of a drug clampdown and traffickers aboard open fire.

The criminals fled but one was injured in the hail of bullets and police took him to a hospital for treatment. The drug traffickers later stormed the hospital to try and retrieve the injured gunman and another shootout started.

TV images showed scenes of chaos at the hospital with dozens of armed police hunting down traffickers inside the building. Frightened patients tried to flee but were forced to lie on the ground to avoid any of the escaping criminals.

After a tense stand-off, five of the armed gunmen were arrested. No patients in the hospital were injured.

"I can confirm the death of two policemen and one of the criminals at the scene of the first gunfight," Tijuana police chief Jaime Niebla told reporters..

Mexico has seen a wave of drug-related violence recently and President Felipe Calderon has sent thousands of troops onto the streets of many cities to wage war against drug cartels.

Much of the violence is between rival cartels seeking to grab control of drug routes to the United States. To date this year, drug-related deaths number more than 600.

Separately, an unknown assailant tossed a grenade into the offices of a northern Mexican newspaper a day after gunmen snatched a reporter from a nearby city, part of a campaign against the media by drug gangs.

The grenade exploded inside the offices of Cambio newspaper in the northern city of Hermosillo on Tuesday night, breaking windows and startling reporters. Nobody was injured, newspaper director Roberto Gutierrez told Reuters.

The attack came a day after gunmen in the border city of Agua Prieta, like Hermosillo in the state of Sonora, snatched a crime reporter investigating the country's bloody war between rival drug cartels.

Mexican journalists reporting on drug gangs are often targeted by traffickers, but attacks on the media appeared to mount after Calderon launched his crackdown.

Gunmen shot dead a reporter from Mexican television network Televisa earlier this month in the Pacific resort of Acapulco, which has become a major battleground for gangs.

More than 2,000 people were killed last year as Mexico's notorious Gulf Cartel battled over production, routes and markets with an alliance of traffickers from the state of Sinaloa, which borders Sonora to the south.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N18197642.htm

The drug traffickers later stormed the hospital to try and retrieve the injured gunman and another shootout started.

This is unbelievable. Further proof Mexico has no control over their drug cartels.

Originally Posted by had_enuf

The drug traffickers later stormed the hospital to try and retrieve the injured gunman and another shootout started.

This is unbelievable. Further proof Mexico has no control over their drug cartels.

One step further Had, it could be said that America is not in control of its consumption of illegal drugs which fuels the cartels in Mexico. I don't agree that bringing our consumption under control by means of enforcement is working. We must intercept the drugs at the border and gain control of our consumption by eliminating the source, not beating up on down-and- out addicts. This has proven to be very costly, to encarcerate and feed these people, not to mention rehab, etc. If our government was serious about getting illegal drugs under control, they would flock our troops on the border and wage war with the cartels. But they aren't that serious are they. It would seem that they are playing games and we don't need that kind of crap in our government.

Drug cartel is blamed for hospital attack

Official says shooters tried to free accomplice

By Sandra Dibble and Anna Cearley
STAFF WRITERS

April 20, 2007

TIJUANA – A group of gunmen who shot their way into a public hospital Wednesday, killing two police officers and creating panic among staff and patients, were members of the Arellano Félix drug cartel, the region's major drug trafficking group, a federal official said yesterday.

The assailants were trying to reach a fellow cartel member, Javier Estrada Dominguez, who was being treated at Tijuana's General Hospital after a shootout with police, said Patricio Patiño Arias, a top official with Mexico's Public Safety Secretariat.
Four people tried to rescue the wounded man, Patiño said.

One of the four, Ernesto Sánchez Vega, 23, was captured. He told police a man identified only as “El Verde” had ordered them to retrieve Estrada.

Patiño identified Sánchez's accomplices only by their nicknames: “El Bloque,” “El Macaco” and “La Roca.” The three apparently escaped, although Patiño did not explicitly say that.

Patiño's statements at a news conference in Mexico City yesterday provided the most extensive description so far of the shootings that led to partial evacuation of the hospital and brought hundreds of police officers and military personnel to the area. But many details remained unclear, and some of Patiño's statements contradict previous information offered by Baja California authorities.

He said police who started the pursuit were acting on leads that an armed group was planning an attack on drug traffickers. Patiño didn't say who had been planning the attack, but he said it was aimed at the “Milenio Cartel.”

The Milenio group, Patiño said, is led by drug trafficking suspect Joaquín Guzmán and includes heavyweights such as trafficking suspect Ismael Zambada. The group has been trying to move into the Arellanos' turf in recent years.

The law enforcement agents' intelligence led them to focus on a white pickup in a neighborhood behind the city's main bus station. When the driver refused to stop, a shootout ensued. After the truck crashed into a bus, the driver and passenger ran away.

One man died at the scene. Estrada was wounded, and an ambulance took him to the General Hospital. Doctors operated on him Wednesday for two gunshot wounds and turned him over to federal authorities yesterday, state health officials said.

The Arellanos have suffered a series of setbacks in recent years, including the arrests of their top leaders, leading some to contemplate the cartel's demise. “In the city of Tijuana, the Arellano Félix cartel continues operating,” Patiño said.

At the hospital yesterday, workers were patching up damaged sections of the emergency unit, where glass had shattered and a bullet pierced a water pipe, but the rest of the hospital was operating normally. Authorities expected to reopen the unit today.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib ... pital.html