Mexican navy patrols off Tijuana in drugs swoop
Source: Reuters
(Adds arrests, quote, nine bodies found in Uruapan) By Noel Randewich TIJUANA, Mexico, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Mexican navy ships patrolled off Pacific beaches near the U.S. border on Friday and soldiers in trucks cruised the streets of Tijuana in an anti-drugs crackdown in one of the country's toughest cities. Helicopters hovered over downtown Tijuana, just south of the U.S. city of San Diego, and three ships sat off the nearby surfing beach of Popotla guarding the coast where traffickers offload South American cocaine headed to the United States. Tijuana, a favorite weekend party town for U.S. college kids, has been caught up in a war between rival drugs gangs that killed some 2,000 people last year. The city records a murder almost every day and two kidnappings a week on average. More than 4,000 soldiers, sailors, federal and state police poured into Tijuana this week as part of a state-by-state war on organized crime and drug cartels by new Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Many of Tijuana's 2,300 municipal police angrily walked off the job late on Thursday after federal forces hauled their weapons off for inspection in a hunt for officers in cahoots with crime gangs. The seizure of some 1,600 guns underscored a widespread belief that many low-paid local police work with criminals. The police were bitter about losing their weapons. "Tijuana is a very troubled city. Without guns, we are not prepared for these confrontations," said Enrique Salvida, an officer at a local police station where many were still handing over pistols and automatic rifles to the army. EMPTY HOLSTERS Mexico's municipal police are so badly equipped that even honest officers are widely considered ineffective. Police who returned to work on Friday patrolled without arms. Motorcycle cops did their rounds with empty holsters. Tijuana is caught in a fight between the local Arellano Felix cartel and rival smugglers from the northwestern state of Sinaloa. Eight people were arrested in the operation and some cars seized but no major drug trafficker was detained. Later on Friday, the presence of federal police and soldiers in the city was thin and locals doubted the operation would dampen violence in the long run. "All they are doing is putting on a show and scaring people," said Antonio Juarez, 30, selling jewelry on Revolucion street. Calderon, who has made fighting drug gangs a priority since coming to power on Dec. 1, last month sent a force of 7,000 to the western state of Michoacan which saw some 500 gangland-style killings last year. Nine bodies were found on Thursday and Friday in shallow graves in a disused warehouse in Uruapan, a town in the western state of Michoacan that has been scene of frequent drug fights. The bodies had their hands tied behind their backs.
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