The cartel violence in Tijuana continues with at least 36 murders registered in the first week of November, bringing the unofficial total to 2,124 for 2018.
The cartel killings are related to the street level distribution of drugs, despite numerous measures taken by the federal government to intervene, according to local reporting and law enforcement sources.
On Monday, November 5, a male victim was gunned down while his female companion was critically wounded. An unknown male also sustained gunshot wounds in colonia Ermita, according to local reports.
On the morning of November 6, a male victim was found stabbed to death inside his residence in colonia Guaycura. At 6:17 am, in colonia Anexa Sánchez Taboada, municipal police located two male murder victims in the street who sustained multiple gunshot wounds. Police later reported that at approximately 3:40 pm, a suitcase was found containing dismembered human remains in colonia 20 de Noviembre. At approximately 8 pm, a male victim was found shot to death in colonia Mariano Matamoros Centro.
Breitbart News reported extensively on the cartel violence in Tijuana and recently noted when local Deputy Attorney General Jorge Alberto Álvarez Mendoza acknowledged that only two percent of murder cases end in convictions.
Breitbart News spoke with local law enforcement contacts who said that the main factor for cartel violence is the low risk of apprehension. Most experts grant that a very small number of criminals are responsible for the overwhelming majority of violent cases. Cartel killers are more likely to be stopped by rival factions than law enforcement.
In a recent development, the state attorney general’s office announced the arrest of a cartel hitman responsible for the murders of at least nine in Tijuana. Manuel Coria Rosas aka “El Coria” or “El Meño,” 56, allegedly murdered nine victims in three separate attacks. Rosas was named in three homicide arrest warrants–the first on December 3, 2017, where one male was gunned down in colonia Las Torres. The second occurred on May 12, 2018, in colonia Magisterial where five were gunned down. The third warrant was for a triple murder on August 30. Rosas was handed over to investigative personnel for the state attorney general’s office.
Robert Arce is a retired Phoenix Police detective with extensive experience working Mexican organized crime and street gangs. Arce has worked in the Balkans, Iraq, Haiti, and recently completed a three-year assignment in Monterrey, Mexico, working out of the Consulate for the United States Department of State, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Program, where he was the Regional Program Manager for Northeast Mexico (Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Durango, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas.)