Tijuana shootout weapons tied to other crimes

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Weapons seized after one of the bloodiest gang shootouts in Baja California history have been linked to several high-profile murders and assassination attempts in recent years, Mexican authorities said Tuesday.

Authorities found 60 weapons in the aftermath of Saturday’s gun battles that left at least 13 gunmen dead in Tijuana. Ballistics tests determined that some had been used in the killings of two immigrant safety officers earlier this year in Tijuana and last year’s assassination attempt on the police chief of Rosarito Beach.

The arms were also linked to a shootout at a Tijuana restaurant that claimed the lives of two agents and two bystanders, and to a bizarre November incident in which gunmen raided the Ensenada morgue to steal the corpse of a suspected cartel leader who died in the Baja 1000 off-road race.

In all, the weapons were linked to at least 9 slayings, officials said.

Authorities still haven’t determined a motive for the weekend attack, though they suspect it stemmed from a dispute between rival cells of the Arellano-Felix drug cartel, which has long controlled drug trafficking in Baja California.

—Richard Marosi in Tijuana