TIJUANA The shooting death of a deputy police chief and his family in their home 2008 horrified the region, even in a year marked by extreme drug violence. On Wednesday night, four men were arrested that shed light on those killings, and the murder of a substation chief.
The four men were arrested on the city's east side, according to a statement from Tijuana's public safety department. They were identified as Marcelo Sánchez Delado, nicknamed "El Chelo," 37; Jesús Antonio Camacho Ayala, 23; Javier Johan Ramos Ceja, 20; and Luis Fernando Vega Saavedra, 26.
They are linked to the shooting deaths of Tijuana deputy police chief Margarito Saldaña Rivera, his wife and their 12-year-old daughter; and substation chief Sergio Antonio Barajas Torres, the statement said.
Two of the men were detained Wednesday at 10:30 p.m. on Silvia Peinado Street in the Generación 2000 neighborhood. One of them threw a .38 caliber revolver into the back yard of a house once he saw the patrol cars, the statement said.
With the permission of the property owner, the officers recovered the pistol and questioned the two men. Ramos Ceja told police that Sánchez Delado had given him the gun so "they could do a job," possibly referring to carrying out a murder, the statement said.
Based on the information they received, police mounted an operation on Gallo Street in the same neighborhood, where they were able to detain before midnight Marcelo Sánchez and Jesús Antonio Camacho, who allegedly were carrying four doses of crystal methamphetamine.
Ramos Ceja said that he had been a lookout during the murders of the two police commanders, which he said were carried out by Jesús Antonio Camacho and Marcelo Sánchez, whom he identified as the head of a criminal cell, the statement said. It did not provide any information on the cell.
The gun that was recovered belonged to the public safety department and was stolen on Sept. 26, 2008, from an officer assigned to the commercial sector, the statement said.
Authorities believe that the killings of the two commanders are not the only ones committed by this cell. The investigation of the four men, who were jailed, was turned over to Baja California's prosecutor for organized crime.
The year 2008 in Tijuana was marked by an unprecedented level of violence as two criminal organizations battled to control the lucrative border region.
On Jan. 15, gunmen raided the home of Tijuana deputy police chief Saldaña Rivera, 43, and killed him, his wife, and daughter and gravely wounded two other daughters. Hours earlier, a substation chief was shot to death in his car.
Omar.millan@sandiegored.com
