TIJUANA - The bloody, gruesome scenes are turning Tijuana into a torturous killing field. As the drug war escalates, the cartels are turning to increasingly horrific methods of murder. Many innocents are dying and the violence is spilling over to this side of the border.
Bodies are showing up murdered in despicable ways, the methods mirroring those of psychotic killers. Just last month, Mexican authorities found a woman's body encased in a cement block, body parts protruding out of the concrete. In the same month on two different occasions, police found a man's body hanging from a bridge.
"Drug cartels are using the media strategy to impact the public," says Octavio Rodriguez. As a lecturer at the University of San Diego, he has followed the drug cartels for many years. He sees the cartels amping up their ways of murder. "This is propaganda to make people fear them and to let them know that they are there."
The U.S. Government is taking notice. Ken Melson of the ATF told San Diego 6, "They have tentacles in 230 American cities. They are affecting our families, our friends, our neighbors."
And the cartels spare no one, not even the innocent. Recently, 15-year-old Yasmin Lopez died from a stray bullet. As she walked on a Tijuana street, a battle opened up in front of her. The drug traffickers and police had it out and in the end this young woman lost her life.
The drug traffickers have made their presence known in San Diego through kidnappings and home invasions. U.S. authorities are trying to combat this with massive law enforcement efforts. U.S. officials hope cracking down on the guns headed south will ease the chaos caused by the drug war.
Both countries hope this will help curb the destruction created by this long, turbulent drug war.
