Tijuana closes 2018 with more than 2,500 homicide victims

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat from Zeta Tijuana thank you Neal in Nevada

Tijuana Police will "double their efforts" to reduce homicides in 2019;

Ines Garcia/ Secretary of Municipal Public Security in Tijuana, Marco Antonio Sotomayor

Translation by "Cruz"

The Secretary of Municipal Public Security in Tijuana, Marco Antonio Sotomayor addressed the problem of premeditated homicides that the city registers, where up until noon on Monday the 31st of December there have been 2,502 committed.

"The situation is unfortunate for us being Tijuana Policemen. We know that we are reaching a number that is really difficult to accept, we have done everything within our grasp to try and reverse this situation. We have had operative results like never before but we understand that they have not been enough to give the results that all the Tijuanenses are looking for and we want to tell them that this coming year we are doubling our efforts. We are going to execute different operational strategies in coordination with other government entities in order to try and accomplish a decrease in homicides", was what he stated in a press conference.

The municipal official indicated that, there will be new compartmentalization among other strategies and that the 120 new Police elements that will graduate from the academy in January will be assigned to Tijuana's East Zone, where the most number of homicides are reported.

The Secretary of Municipal Public Security (SSPM) also informed that they seized more weapons this year than in the past, reaching 988 firearms, 789 small arms, 188 rifles.

Sotomayor Amezcua mentioned that the Municipal Police has basically worked/used 2 strategies in order to reduce premeditated homicides: combat street-level drug dealing and seize firearms.

"We know that the homicides situation is due to conflicts between criminal groups for different reasons, such as street-level drug dealing. Another strategy is to seize more drugs. If we are able to get these drug dealers off of the street not only are we are going to prevent them from being able to poison our youths but also from killing each other. We are not going to sit idle", stated Sotomayor.

He assured that Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum's administration's main goal is a decrease in the number of homicides for 2019, responsibility that the secretary said: "is not only of the Tijuana Police force but that we will continue doing our part to accomplish that decrease".

He also expressed satisfaction with the actions and results of the Police, whom he affirmed "they have taken the caste, they have been brave", but he stated he was unsatisfied because "we have not been able to bring down the main scourge of this city, which is the homicides".

Among other results that the SSPM obtained in 2018, are the arrest of 140 murders, 3,406 people for burglary, the completion of 487 arrest warrants, the arrest of 91 non-national fugitives (the majority being from the US), also the confiscation of more than 5 tons of marijuana and the recovery of more than 2,000 stolen vehicles.