Killings of 4 Americans in Tijuana sow fear

TIJUANA, Mexico â?? 10:31 p.m. May 15, 2009
The slayings of four young Americans in Tijuana sowed fear in Southern California on Friday as Mexican prosecutors tried to determine whether the youths were involved in the country's violent drug trade or innocent victims of a brutal crime.

The victims, two men and two women in their teens and early 20s, said they were headed for a night of partying across the border only to be found strangled, stabbed and beaten a few days later.

Mexican officials are investigating whether any of the four San Diego-area victims had ties to the drug trade, after a toxicology report tested positive for cocaine on the body of Brianna Hernandez, who was either 18 or 19.

Another victim, Oscar Jorge Garcia, 23, was apprehended in the San Diego area in January 2008 with six illegal immigrants in the car, but never charged in the case, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lauren Mack said.

The parents of 20-year-old victim Carmen Jimena Ramos Chavez on Friday described a vibrant Chula Vista High graduate who worked at an amusement park for children and planned to become a hair stylist.

"She was a happy girl, with a desire to explore the world," said her father, Rogelio Ramos Camano, of Chula Vista. "Young people are like that. They think nothing will happen. I was like that, too."

Mexican prosecutors said the victims had been bound and tortured â?? common tactics by Mexican drug gangs â?? before being left in a van in a dusty slum on the outskirts of Tijuana.

Jose Manuel Yepiz, a spokesman for the Baja California state prosecutor's office, said investigators were examining a threatening letter to one of the victims from a jail inmate in San Diego.

Prosecutors said they had ruled out the possibility that the killings were a case of drug gangs targeting tourists.

Tijuana, which sits across the border from San Diego, has a reputation as one of Mexico's most violent border cities. Authorities said 843 people were slain there in 2008, many in drug-related violence.

Since taking office in December 2006, President Felipe Calderon has sent more than 45,000 soldiers to combat drug cartels in the country whose turf battles have killed more than 10,750 people over the last two-and-a-half years.

Violence had diminished in Tijuana in recent months, only to pick up a few weeks ago with seven police officers killed in brazen attacks on one day.

Victor Clark, a professor at San Diego State University's Center for Latin American Studies, said criminal ties with any one of the Americans could have spelled disaster for the group.

"Maybe they broke the rules, which means death" when dealing with Mexico's drug cartels, said Clark, a Tijuana resident and native. "And they dragged their friends down with them."

Relatives said the victims were familiar with both sides of the border and navigating the area's bilingual culture â?? but may have taken their safety for granted.

Ramos said he had often told his daughter, who was born in Tijuana but raised from a young age in the U.S., that Tijuana was too dangerous, and she assured him she was always careful.

But Ramos said he didn't offer any warnings as his daughter got ready to go out with her friend Brianna on May 7, even as he watched a news program about killings in Tijuana on Mexican television.

"I think God put that out there so I would do something, but I didn't dare," he said in Spanish, shaking his head, recalling how they were already primped and ready to go.

U.S. tourists, already warned by the U.S. State Department to be cautious in Mexico because foreign bystanders have been killed, now appear even less likely to visit once-popular destinations like Tijuana.

"I'm not going to T.J. unless it's absolutely necessary," Amelia Lopez, a friend of a victim told television station San Diego 6. "Before, you know, you go to eat or have a good time or shopping. Nothing like that."

By GUILLERMO ARIAS and AMY TAXIN, The Associated Press

Arias reported from Tijuana and Taxin from Chula Vista, Calif. Associated Press Writer Solvej Schou in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

By Sandra Dibble Union-Tribune Staff Writer

2:00 a.m. May 21, 2009

TIJUANA â?? A U.S. citizen facing trial in Arizona on drug-trafficking charges may be connected to the deaths of four San Diego County residents whose bodies were found inside a van in a residential Tijuana neighborhood this month.

Ernesto Murguia Ochoa, 22, who is scheduled for trial July 20 in Maricopa County, was renting a house in eastern Tijuana that the four young victims are believed to have visited and where they may have been killed, said a Mexican law enforcement official familiar with the case.

Authorities have yet to determine whether Murguia is a perpetrator or a victim of the crimes, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.

Murguia is currently missing, the official said.

He was one of 30 defendants named in a 54-count drug-trafficking indictment in September in Maricopa County Superior Court. According to court documents, Murguia pleaded not guilty and was released after posting a $50,000 bond.

In February, a judge ordered a bench warrant for his arrest after Murguia failed to appear for a court hearing. On May 9, the victims were found stabbed and strangled inside a burgundy Ford Aerostar with California plates parked in the same Loma Dorada neighborhood where Murguia had rented the house. Some time later, Mexican soldiers raided the residence and found blood-stained walls and the victims'identification cards.

All four victims crossed the border frequently and had gone to party in Tijuana when they were killed, authorities said. They were identified as Brianna Hernandez Aguilera, 19; Carmen Jimena Ramos Chavez, 20; Luis Antonio Gamez, 21; and Oscar Jorge Garcia Cota, 23.

One of the victims, Garcia, had been arrested on suspicion of alien smuggling in January 2008 after he was stopped while driving a vehicle with six illegal immigrants aboard, but he was never charged.

Investigators believe that Murguia had a relationship with at least one of the victims, the official said, and they are working to determine whether the victims had participated with Murguia in drug-trafficking activities.

Ugg. That story just makes me so sad and sick. So many awful stories from trips down to TJ going sour like that or just being way freaking lucky no one got hurt. Sad to hear this group was less fortunate. My heart goes out to them and their families. But what has been happening lately is nothing short of MAJOR concern for people, like myself, living next to the border. I hope we can demand order and fix the twisted up corruption and distortion of law between law and government and drugs down there so people can once again come down there and have a good, relatively "safe" time. I'm a kitesurfer and i would really like to drive down there and ride but its WAY too risky to do that without getting bothered or in trouble right now so until we fix this all we're just gonna get is more of this "icky" news