TIJUANA--Five victims were shot inside a seafood restaurant, four were decapitated, one was shot and hung from a bridge. A surge in gangland-style killings in Tijuana is being linked to two rival drug trafficking groups vying for control of the region.

Since the weekend, the death toll has been mounting rapidly: Of 71 homicides reported so far this month, 24 took place on Tuesday and Wednesday. Many recent victims were men in their 20s, though the youngest was 14 and the oldest appeared to be close to 60, authorities said.

“We are witnessing a war between drug traffickers,” said Rommel Moreno Manjarrez, Baja California’s attorney general. Many of those who have been killed are low-level operatives in the trafficking organizations, he said, and many have criminal records.

“This is the dynamic of the war,” said Victor Clark, a human-rights activist and longtime observer of trafficking groups. “Violence leaves them depleted, they rearm themselves, and once again charge ahead.”

The rivalries led to a record number of 844 homicides in Tijuana last year, most of them in the final three months. The total so far this year is 603.

In several instances, the killers left messages suggesting an act of retaliation against the rival drug group. Authorities said one was left by the body of the unidentified man between the ages of 40 and 45 found shot in the head and left hanging early Monday from a bridge in the southern district of La Gloria.

But some may have died as bystanders. On Saturday, a 14-year-old died inside a taxi sprayed with gunfire. Police found a 19-year-old man dead inside the vehicle and a 27-year-old man dead on the adjacent sidewalk.

The violence follows a series of recent blows to the drug-trafficking gangs, including the discovery of two incomplete drug-trafficking tunnels in Tijuana and the seizure of large sums of cash in Tijuana and Mexicali. (Source: San Diego Union Tribune)

Story Date: December 19, 2009