U.S. charges top leaders of Tijuana-based drug carte.
Federal authorities announced a wide-ranging criminal complaint Friday against top leaders of a Tijuana-based drug cartel that ran much of its operations from the San Diego area, allegedly ordering murders, kidnappings and the torture of rival traffickers in Mexico.
The racketeering conspiracy case charges 43 people, among them high-ranking lieutenants, Mexican police officers and a top official in the Baja California attorney general's office who allegedly passed along information obtained from U.S. law enforcement sources to cartel operatives.
The organized crime group, an offshoot of the Arellano Felix drug cartel, moved some operations to San Diego in recent years, seeking a safe haven from gang wars and law enforcement crackdowns south of the border, said Laura Duffy, the U.S. attorney in San Diego.
Through the use of undercover agents and surveillance, authorities prevented most of the violence in San Diego County, including six attempted murders and an attempted kidnapping, Duffy said. In Mexico, cartel members kidnapped and killed several people, and tried to shift responsibility to rival gangs through corrupt Mexican law enforcement.
