Tijuana Police Official and Family Slain

**Willowdared** · 01-16-08, 12:41 AM

By Sandra Dibble
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
11:58 a.m. January 15, 2008
TIJUANA – Another high-ranking municipal police official has been shot and killed, along with his wife and two daughters, police officials said Tuesday.

Margarito Saldana Rivera, 43, was shot to death around 4 a.m. at his home in the Los Piños area of Tijuana. Rivera was a district chief in Los Piños, according to municipal police.

His wife and 12-year-old daughter were also slain. A 4-year-old daughter was wounded in the attack and died at a hospital, police officials said.

Top federal, state and municipal law enforcement officials plan to discuss the attack during a noon news conference at Tijuana's municipal police headquarters. Security is visibly tight around the building, with numerous officers wearing ski masks and brandishing weapons.

The discovery that Rivera and his family had been killed was made just hours after two other top Tijuana police officials were fatally shot.

The Baja California Attorney General's Office said Jose de Jesus Arias Rico, chief of the central La Mesa District, and Elbert Escobedo Marquez, the assistant chief, were killed late Monday while in a car.

The violence came after a car chase and shootout Monday afternoon between municipal police and at least two people who allegedly tried to rob an armored car after it made a cash pickup at a bank. One suspect was killed and another was wounded and taken to a hospital under police custody, municipal police said.

Local media reported that police commanders received threats on their radio signal after the shootout, a common intimidation tactic among gangs of organized criminals.

**Willowdared** · 01-16-08, 12:43 AM

The story about the other two officers.

Two top Tijuana police officials found slain

By Sandra Dibble
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
2:35 a.m. January 15, 2008

TIJUANA – A high-ranking police official and his second-in-command were found shot to death late Monday in a central part of this city. The killings marked the second in less than two weeks of top municipal police officials.

The Baja California Attorney General's Office identified the victims as Jose de Jesus Arias Rico, chief of the central La Mesa District, and Elbert Escobedo Marquez, the assistant chief.

Their bodies were found slumped inside a 1988 blue Ford Escort. Numerous shells from 9-millimeter and .223-caliber weapons were found at the scene, according to a written statement.

The Agencia Fronteriza de Noticias, a Tijuana news agency, reported that the killings occurred at about 10:20 p.m. within the victims' district, a block from a busy intersection known as La Cinco y Diez.

In a written statement, Baja California's attorney general, Rommel Moreno Manjarrez, vowed to find those responsible for the crimes.
On Jan. 3, another district chief with the Tijuana municipal police was found dead four days after he was abducted from his home. His body and that of another Tijuana officer were found off a highway in an unpopulated area of Rosarito Beach.

Officials linked the killings to the victims' involvement with organized crime.

Tijuana police have faced rising attacks since Mayor Jorge Ramos' administration took office in December, vowing to eradicate corruption from the 2,300-officer force.