Posted on 02/22/2008 2:26:54 PM PST by Fudd Fan
She looks really great lately.
Not that she didn’t look good before, but she looks especially good now.
More Tijuana news
Kidnappings of U.S. citizens on rise
Sophisticated Mexican groups plot abductions
By Tony Manolatos
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 6, 2008
Organized, well-financed and violent Mexican kidnapping cells are targeting a growing number of U.S. citizens visiting communities popular with San Diegans and other California residents.
Last year, at least 26 San Diego County residents were kidnapped and held for ransom in Tijuana, Rosarito Beach or Ensenada, local FBI agents overseeing the cases said yesterday. In 2006, at least 11 county residents had been kidnapped in the three communities.
“Some of the 26 were recovered, some were hurt and some were killed,” said agent Alex Horan, who directs the FBI’s violent-crime squad in San Diego.
“It’s not a pleasant experience. Victims have reported beatings, torture and there have been rapes. . . . Handcuffs and hoods over the head are common,” he said.
When contrasted to the 40 million border crossings made every year at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the kidnapping numbers are small. Most of the victims have business interests or family members in Mexico.
But authorities said anyone planning to visit Mexico should be cautious.
“I would certainly be concerned,” Horan said.
The U.S. Consulate in Tijuana issued a travel advisory last week that said U.S. citizens living and traveling in Mexico should be extra vigilant.
Gunfights and other violence linked to drug cartels have increased in Baja California, and more Mexican citizens have been kidnapped lately.
While some of the groups suspected of kidnapping Americans are connected to drug trafficking, most aren’t, Horan said.
He described the kidnapping groups as sophisticated operations similar to terrorist cells, each with a boss and clear divisions of labor. Usually, one group is involved in scouting, another carries out the kidnapping, a third holds the victim and a fourth handles the ransom.
“They know who they’re going after. I think they have a list,” Horan said. “These are kidnapping cells. . . . That’s what they do. They do kidnappings all year long.”
While the FBI wouldn’t say what the ransom demands are, or how often they’re paid, agents said money is driving the increase.
“This is not about terrorizing people or retaliating. This is about making money, and obviously this is good business for them,” Horan said.
The scenario that fits about 90 percent of the FBI’s kidnapping cases starts with a middle-class family with no criminal ties, who live in communities such as Chula Vista, San Diego and National City.
The family typically owns a business in Mexico and has relatives there. At least one family member, usually a man in his 40s, makes several personal and professional trips across the border.
While driving in Mexico, this person is pulled over by as many as 10 people posing as police.
They’re carrying weapons, wearing vests and using police jargon. Within a minute or two, someone is shoving a hood over the victim’s head and dragging him into a vehicle. His car is left on the side of the road.
“We’ve had victims held for days to months,” Horan said.
Not every victim is Hispanic, but there have been “very few cases where a tourist is targeted at random,” said Eric Drickersen, who supervises the FBI’s border liaison office in San Diego.
Some of the kidnappings go unreported because people fear retribution, Drickersen said.
Ransom demands are almost always made over the phone. The cross-border communication gives the FBI its jurisdiction. But the agents need authorization from Mexican authorities before they can carry out an operation across the border.
Mexican authorities have been helpful, their U.S. counterparts said.
“They’re cooperating, but we would like them to do even more,” Drickersen said.
A week ago, Mexican authorities rescued two female real estate agents who were being held in a Tijuana neighborhood. The women were kidnapped Jan. 19 by three men after showing a property in southern Tijuana, the Baja California Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.
The men called in a ransom demand of $350,000, the statement said. Family members negotiated a payment of $27,000 and dropped off the cash, but the women weren’t released.
Baja California state agents tracked down the vehicle used to pick up the cash. The driver led authorities to the women, and three men were arrested.
Both women are Mexican citizens, although one is married to a U.S. resident. She and her husband live in Chula Vista.
I’m not mad at TGO.
Amen.
Multiple official languages create barriers between fellow countrymen. There are people that refuse to speak any other language but their own. So communication becomes a problem, especially if you can't speak their language as fluently as they would like.
It creates divisions within the country which is exactly what Democrats want anyway.
Me, too.
Sunday night 7 PM, est.
Tim Sumner the founder of 9/11 Families for a Secure America will be the guest interview and we’ll both be taking calls.
Jeff will be on tonight at 11 est.
Find out more at http://www.SilverRepublicans.org
diving for cover
That’s the plan, dear one! That indeed is the plan.
Is that down from last year?
Kidding. Dang.
Sounds great! I will try and stop by.
DUCK!
Some of the wealthy Mexicans have moved to our south bay section, Chula Vista to escape the kidnappings but some have still been cought up here.
I’ve missed the show til now- am I missing anything?
My son sent me a CD of The Highwaymen and just couldn’t stop listening to Waylon, Willie, Kris and Johnny :)
Inga’s tenacity, tone & infliction reminds me of Tammy Bruce, who I also like, but I think Tammy has Libertarian tendencies & may support Ron Paul.
Going to check out the Glenn Beck show which has that writer who wrote about liberal facism.
Since I will not be posting again till Monday, have a good night and a good weekend, enjoy the newly fallan snow for those posters who can do so. Look forward to listen once again and welcome back TGO and winning more blenders. Thanks and welcome to Inga who is doing a great job subbing. Have a great future going national as a talkradio show host.
Good Night, God Bless Mark Levin and the Mark Levin thread fans, and the USA.
Good Night Sprity and Sweetie. =^..^= :)
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