Tijuana, Part 7

In one such “situation” the Mexican Federal Judicial Police encountered a hundred Baja California State Judicial Police who were also engaged (after hours, of course) as personal bodyguards for The Cartel’s leader Javier Arellano Felix. Thousands of bullets buzzed through the air. Bodies lay scattered and dribbling various fluids in the warm hazy sunlight. Javier Arellano Felix — “El Señor, or also known as, “El Min” — survived the event.

In another situation two Mexican Federal Police agents were gunned down right on the Tijuana courthouse steps after they had testified in a legal matter concerning The Cartel and some of these highly refined agricultural products.

This diversity even sends bullets into California's Border Field State Park and lend excitement to an otherwise boring day at the beach.

The Arellano Félix Cartel may be the most lethal criminal organization within 5,000 miles of the U.S. / Mexico border but that does not mean it's perfect. The Cartel’s Efraín Pérez Pazuenga, Jorge Aureliano Félix, and seven of their accomplices were recently passengers in an armored convoy rumbling through Tijuana’s Zona Rio high class district on their way to serious prison time. Sr. José Manuel Ayala Mora, an homicide detective for the state of Baja California; Alfonso Escobedo Villalvazo, a former Baja California Police agent; and Alberto Antonio Gómez, a former federal police agent were included in this handcuffed parade.

The Cartel has had issues with the editors of the local Tijuana newspapers. We all must agree that a tendentious Letter To The Editor has little weight when compared to launching a fusillade of 300 machine gun bullets through the newspaper’s front door.

The Tijuana weekly paper Zeta was brought to task for its editorial stand when the paper’s editor was wounded and his bodyguard ascended to immortality during an early morning discussion. A squad of young adults surrounded their car and perforated it in a vast number of places. The youths were so enthusiastic in their interplay that they accidentally whacked one of their own in this flurry of bee-like whizzing of bullets and clouds of cordite smoke.

With The Cartel taking serious pressure at the top of U.S. DEA’s Hit List, the lesser ranking drug organizations are more active in the city. The Ismael “Mayo” Zambada drug cartel is now taking control of certain segments of drug operations in Tijuana.