Pubdate: Fri, 18 Jan 2008
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2008 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.uniontrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Note: Seldom prints LTEs from outside it's circulation area.
Author: Sandra Dibble, Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Tijuana
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Mexico (Mexico)

COPS RUSH TIJUANA HOUSE TO END 3-HOUR GUNBATTLE

6 Bodies Found Inside With Suspects

TIJUANA - Automatic weapons rattled, neighbors huddled low in their 
locked homes and uniformed preschoolers were hustled to safety as 
heavily armed law enforcement agents stormed a house yesterday in a 
middle-class neighborhood here and found the bodies of six people 
believed to be victims of the Arellano Felix drug cartel.

Mexican authorities announced last night at a news conference that 
four people were in custody, including a Tijuana police officer and a 
man who identified himself as a member of the Baja California 
ministerial police.

The suspects are members of a cell of the notoriously violent cartel, 
said Edgar Millan, a top official with Mexico's federal Public 
Security Secretariat. While the drug gang is believed to have lost 
its lock on the region's drug trade in recent years, it remains active.

The gunbattle was part of a daunting spike in regional violence in 
recent weeks. Some analysts say the spate of killings is an 
indication that drug cartels and kidnap gangs feel threatened by the 
federal, state and municipal governments' vow to work together 
against organized crime. Others say it is a sign of a power struggle 
as the Arellano Felix cartel loses its grip.

"The Mexican state will not take one step backward in its frontal 
battle against organized crime," Millan said. Two of the suspects 
were identified as Carlos Alberto Espinoza Vega and Roman Gamez 
Osuna, both found inside the house. Two other suspects found shooting 
at the federal and state officers were detained outside.

It wasn't made clear what role they played in the Arellano Felix organization.

Millan said the police investigation had just begun. He was 
accompanied at the news conference by Rommel Moreno Manjarrez, Baja 
California's attorney general; Daniel de la Rosa Anaya, the state 
secretary of public safety; and Gen. German Redondo Azuara, commander 
of the second military zone.

The clash began after members of Mexico's Federal Preventive Police 
approached the large brick house on a shady residential street as 
part of an investigation and met with gunfire as they tried to enter.

Inside the house they found six male victims, gagged and blindfolded 
and shot in the head. Millan said the Baja California Attorney 
General's Office is helping identify the victims, determine whether 
they had been kidnapped, and pinpoint the time of death.

Three members of the Federal Preventive Police and one municipal 
police officer were injured in the confrontation.

The operation involved federal, state and municipal police, as well 
as the military. Hours after the gunshots stopped, dozens of masked 
police officers continued to swarm the cordoned-off block in the 
central La Mesa district.

"Here, there are no levels of government," said Millan, the 
designated spokesman for the operation. "It's a unified force to 
fight organized crime."

Later in the afternoon, bomb threats forced the evacuation of City 
Hall for about an hour, a city spokesman said.

Residents of Fraccionamiento Cortez saw their streets turn into a 
battleground, a rare scene even in a city plagued in recent years by 
drug-related violence. As a police helicopter hovered, radio and 
television news programs broadcast warnings that residents should 
stay indoors and away from windows. As gunshots sounded, heavily 
armed agents carried and led uniformed preschoolers to safety. Some 
of the children covered their ears and some cried.

A 43-year-old housewife said she had stepped out to buy some milk, 
leaving her 12-year-old son alone at home, when she heard the shots. 
"We no longer feel exempt," she said. "It's all different from now on."

A 60-year-old retiree said his granddaughter was in a junior high 
school three blocks away when the shooting occurred. He said he 
approved of strong government measures. "It's not the Tijuana that we 
knew before," he said. "But we hope that it can be that way again."

The neighbors did not give their names. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake