Blood & White Gold in Tijuana

There are bodies in the street, the blood seeps onto the concrete from open wounds where high velocity bullets have torn through cheap, often imitation or knockoff clothes.

'El Javi'

This is where the battles are fought in Tijuana, outside homes, rural roads, colonias where hardworking families watch the red & blue lights of municipal police cars cast their ominous shadow.  It is a war of attrition, tit for tat style executions, the shooters unload upon vehicles in traffic, throw corpses on the street, and AFN writes about in the morning.

From Tijuana to Ensenada, the waves of unrest in the organizations working in Baja manifest themselves as bodies and limbs dropped in the street.  State police are attacked in Tijuana, and a severed head rolls down a road near the Guadelupe Valley in Ensenada.  Bodies are mutilated, burned, and dropped in the street.  One burned and one strang
led found in Tijuana on August 14th, three found around the city two days earlier.  Two shot to death in Zona Rio, on August 17th.

Yesterday a body was found in a blue plastic co
ntainer, reminiscent of the days of El Teo and his murderous, taunting messages to El Inge.

Members of the 'R's, during 2010 arrest.

The cells of Sinaloa are not aligned, and have shifted, created and broken alliances, as the blood runs thicker down the concrete.
The twisted alliances and paths of the cells are as mutilated as the bodies of their halcones, 'The Rs' are a cell of Jose 'El Tigre' Soto, who came up as a hand of Teodoro Simental Garcia, 'El Teo', headed by Javier Beltran E' Javi' Adrian Caberera.

They have been settling scores, murdering, and kidnapping for years, as 'El Tigre' rose from enforcer to trafficker, now sitting upon the DEA's most wanted list, with Alfonso Lira, 'El Atlante', Alfredo Azarte,  'Aquiles', 'and La Rana.  The latest reports state Atlante, and Aquiles have been fighting for control to Tijuana, and Rosarito, despite pleas from Sinaloa hierarchy to calm the plaza.

There has been no calm, only continued executions, as 'El Tigre' and his 'R's have returned from Mexicali, standing against Atlante and Aquiles, for control of Tijuana retail sales, and trafficking to the US, through San Diego.  CAF cells are quiet, some switching to Sinaloa, some withstanding, no one knows what if any, infrastructure remains.  Or who answers to who.

Aquiles leaves banners demanding all the cells answer to him, and denouncing the cells of Tigre, claiming they extort and kidnap.  Javier 'El Javi' Hernandez Beltran controls the R's, from San Diego, along with his half brother Isac Chavez Caberera, 'El Alio', who both answer to El Tigre, who remains in Mexicali.  They are said to be responsible for hundreds of murders throughout the city, in their camp
aign to unseat their rivals.

El Tigre

Atlante is said to control the municipal police in Tijuana, slimming down and upping his profile, since 2013.  No one knows who will edge out the competition, Aquiles and La Rana have been the most high profile since 2010, images long being leaked to the press, moving from Tijuana, to San Luis Colorado, to Sinaloa, to avoid authorities.  But, they remain.  As does the blood.



Sources: BB Forum, Zeta Tijuana, AFN Tijuana.