Tijuana police suspect 16 killings gang-related
The victims are found, along with a bag of tongues, in two vacant lots

By DUDLEY ALTHAUS
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Mexico City Bureau
Sept. 30, 2008, 1:53PM

Associated Press
Mexican forensic investigators work near the bodies of 12 people at a crime scene, in Tijuana on Monday.

Share Print Email Del.icio.usDiggTechnoratiYahoo! BuzzResources MEXICO CITY — Gunmen shot and killed at least 16 people execution-style Monday in the border city of Tijuana in what appeared to be a gangland vendetta.

Twelve of those killed — including one woman — were shot just before dawn and their bodies left near an elementary school not far from the U.S. border, south of San Diego.

The victims had been bound and gagged and bore signs of torture. News reports said a bag containing the tongues of some of the victims was left nearby.

"This happens to them for being snitches for The Engineer and those with him," read a placard left with the victims, who police said were between ages 25 and 30. The newspaper La Jornada of Mexico City reported that police believe "The Engineer" belongs to the Arrellano Felix family, which has controlled the illegal drug trade in Tijuana since the early 1990s.

La Jornada identified "The Engineer" as Eduardo Sanchez Arrellano, whose mother, the newspaper said, is considered the current head of the organization.

Four other men were found dead execution-style in another empty lot nearby. A note left with them read: "I'm not a traitor and I don't go around with cowards."

"We still don't know what this is about," said Jose Manuel Yepes, a spokesman for the Baja California state prosecutors office. "The messages suggest that it's related to organized crime."

Gangsters have grown fond of leaving messages at the scenes of killings threatening or mocking their adversaries and the government.

Large homemade signs have also been hung from highway overpasses and in city plazas complaining of unfair treatment or promising more mayhem.

Gangland violence has killed more than 5,000 Mexicans in the past 22 months since President Felipe Calderon ordered the army and federal police to step up enforcement against the country's powerful drug cartels.

As the pressure has increased, the drug gangs have turned on their former police protectors and one another. The brutality of the murders — including a growing trend toward decapitations — has shocked many Mexicans. Civilians uninvolved in the drug trade have been among the victims.
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