15 homicides noted in city since Sunday
By Sandra Dibble
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

July 8, 2008

The discovery of six burned bodies yesterday morning in Tijuana and of two other homicide victims found elsewhere in the city has shattered weeks of relative calm.
The killings raised the number of homicides reported since early Sunday to 15, and authorities said some of the deaths could be linked to organized crime. They announced the arrest of a municipal police officer suspected of killing a man early Sunday in the city's Rio Zone.



Advertisement Violence has increased this year in Baja California as President Felipe Calderón's administration has led a major push against organized crime. Federal, state and municipal police have made numerous arrests and seizures, but the death toll has been mounting, often attributed to power struggles among various criminal groups in the region.
The most recent killings bring the number of homicides in Tijuana this year to 273, according to the Baja California Attorney General's Office. Last year's reported total was 337.

The renewed violence comes 10 weeks after a shootout between rival gangs in eastern Tijuana left 13 dead. The confrontation involved rival factions of the Arellano Felix cartel, law enforcement sources said, and resulted from the cartel hierarchy trying to control an increasingly powerful crew leader, Teodoro “El Teoâ€