Check this out if you haven’t. KPBS is doing a great job covering the drug-war killings in Tijuana: Its online feature, Border Battle, offers a video gallery of different killing and kidnapping sites and a revealing interactive map showing where bodies have turned up throughout the city.
The Los Angeles Times’ Richard Marosi also had another frightening and well-reported story today on the man authorities believe is responsible for dissolving some of his enemies in chemical baths.
The story says:
Teodoro Garcia Simental is among the best known but least identifiable villains in Mexico’s drug war, blamed for a trail of terror across Baja California. …
Garcia is said to be in his mid-30s — even his date of birth is not known. He reportedly bets big on clandestine horse races at isolated ranches outside Ensenada. He hires people at $400 per week to guard kidnapping victims and to weld together the barrels of caustic chemicals used to dispose of some of his victims, according to documents and interviews. One Mexican law enforcement official said Garcia has killed people at parties, laughing at their stunned reactions.
“Criminals earn respect and credibility with creative killing methods,” said the official, who requested anonymity for reasons of security. “Your status is based on your capacity to commit the most sadistic acts. Burning corpses, using acid, beheading victims. … This generation is setting a new standard for savagery.”