I'll be in Tijuana this weekend - I give a first hand report when I return.
BULLETS OVER BAJA: Attack Yields Grave Consequences
- Thread starter ShakaZulu
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scjoe
Contributor
In addition to the travel alert, there was also a report about a family with small children being forced out of their private plane as they were getting ready to depart. I believe they were near Cabo, but I cannot recall. No one was hurt, but the plane was stolen.
OP
ShakaZulu
Contributor
By Associated Press
4:40 PM PDT, April 15, 2008
LOS CABOS, Mexico -- Gunmen held up a family of U.S. tourists in Mexico on Tuesday and made off with their small plane, police said.
The robbers attacked the plane as the American couple and their two daughters, ages 6 and 8, were about to take off from a hotel airstrip in the Baja California beach town of Mulege.
Detective Juan Carlos de Jesus Jimenez said the thieves pulled a car in front of the six-seat Cessna Stationair, knocked out one of its windows and forced the tourists out at gunpoint. They then set fire to the car and flew off in the plane.
U.S. officials said they had heard reports about the incident but had not yet been in contact with the victims. The plane's identification number matched a craft registered to a company in Boise, Idaho.
Small aircraft are commonly used by Mexican drug cartels to smuggle narcotics.
Los Angeles Times - News from Los Angeles, California and the World
4:40 PM PDT, April 15, 2008
LOS CABOS, Mexico -- Gunmen held up a family of U.S. tourists in Mexico on Tuesday and made off with their small plane, police said.
The robbers attacked the plane as the American couple and their two daughters, ages 6 and 8, were about to take off from a hotel airstrip in the Baja California beach town of Mulege.
Detective Juan Carlos de Jesus Jimenez said the thieves pulled a car in front of the six-seat Cessna Stationair, knocked out one of its windows and forced the tourists out at gunpoint. They then set fire to the car and flew off in the plane.
U.S. officials said they had heard reports about the incident but had not yet been in contact with the victims. The plane's identification number matched a craft registered to a company in Boise, Idaho.
Small aircraft are commonly used by Mexican drug cartels to smuggle narcotics.
Los Angeles Times - News from Los Angeles, California and the World
Codyjp
Contributor
Stationairs are Numero Uno for smuglin' da drugs...
They will paint (N number etc) it just like another 'legitimate' plane and run it across the boarder somewhere else. There are lots of deterrents to safeguard a parked plane but a planejacking is another story, the best insurance for that is, well, insurance.
cdiver2
Contributor
BBC NEWS
April 27-8
Mexico drug gang clashes kill 15
Gunfire could be heard across the city
Gun battles between rival factions of a Mexican drugs cartel have left at least 15 people dead in the city of Tijuana, near the border with the US.
Police said all the dead were from the Arellano Felix cartel, which has come under pressure from a rival gang.
Two were wearing police uniforms or equipment, but are thought to have been gang members, police say.
Drug-related violence is a serious issue across Mexico. Nearly 200 people have been killed in Tijuana this year.
Investigators believe two of the dead were senior hitmen for the Arellano Felix cartel and were identified by large gold rings on their fingers.
'Saint Death'
The rings carried the icon of Saint Death, a grim reaper figure that gangsters believe protects them, police said.
Since taking office in late 2006, President Felipe Calderon has sent nearly 30,000 soldiers and federal police to fight the drugs cartels.
But the violence continues between drug gangs fighting to control lucrative trafficking routes.
The Arellano Felix cartel rose to prominence in Tijuana in the 1980s. Much of its activities centre on smuggling Colombian cocaine through Mexico to California.
It paid millions of dollars in bribes to local law enforcement officers and was blamed for increasing violence, including the murder of informants and rival traffickers.
The gang has been weakened by the arrest or killing of many of its top leaders, police say.
It has recently come under pressure from a rival gang from the west coast state of Sinaloa, led by Mexico's most wanted criminal, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.
April 27-8
Mexico drug gang clashes kill 15
Gunfire could be heard across the city
Gun battles between rival factions of a Mexican drugs cartel have left at least 15 people dead in the city of Tijuana, near the border with the US.
Police said all the dead were from the Arellano Felix cartel, which has come under pressure from a rival gang.
Two were wearing police uniforms or equipment, but are thought to have been gang members, police say.
Drug-related violence is a serious issue across Mexico. Nearly 200 people have been killed in Tijuana this year.
Investigators believe two of the dead were senior hitmen for the Arellano Felix cartel and were identified by large gold rings on their fingers.
'Saint Death'
The rings carried the icon of Saint Death, a grim reaper figure that gangsters believe protects them, police said.
Since taking office in late 2006, President Felipe Calderon has sent nearly 30,000 soldiers and federal police to fight the drugs cartels.
But the violence continues between drug gangs fighting to control lucrative trafficking routes.
The Arellano Felix cartel rose to prominence in Tijuana in the 1980s. Much of its activities centre on smuggling Colombian cocaine through Mexico to California.
It paid millions of dollars in bribes to local law enforcement officers and was blamed for increasing violence, including the murder of informants and rival traffickers.
The gang has been weakened by the arrest or killing of many of its top leaders, police say.
It has recently come under pressure from a rival gang from the west coast state of Sinaloa, led by Mexico's most wanted criminal, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.
Did you catch the gun fight in the streets?
John
John
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I have been away for several months - traveling to Baja, all the way to Cabo, to the mainland of Mexico and points south into Central America. Yes, through out Mexico there is unrest and "mucho drugas"
Darting in an out of TJ and not experiencing crime is like over nighting at LAX at terminal six and saying there is no crime in LA.
The "Let me slap myself and ignore reality" your continuing message to board?
If want to wax poetic about Baja, that's fine with me. But pretending that all the asesinatos, mordidas, chingaderas and tonterias that happen ALL the time in Baja doesn't exist is a disservice to the novatos. (I assume that you speak and understand Spanish)
Calderon didn't send 3,000 troops to Baja to hang pinatas, thats for sure that's for darn sure.
I once again leave in a few weeks for a vacaion in Baja over 600 miles below the border.....
SDM
Give it a rest Sam. I don’t just go to Tijuana to buy Tequila. But not being a drug dealer, competitor to the drug dealers, corrupt policeman, Mexican Drug enforcement officer, gun dealer or smuggler I, like the vast majority of people who visit or work in Baja have little to fear.
To use your analogy, if you base all of Los Angeles’s crime static’s based only on the communities of South Central or East LA, you may not want visit Beverly Hills.
To use your analogy, if you base all of Los Angeles’s crime static’s based only on the communities of South Central or East LA, you may not want visit Beverly Hills.
