The recent spike in violence south of the border continued Tuesday morning. Tijuana police found five dead bodies dumped on the outskirts of the city. KPBS reporter Amy Isackson has the story.
Police in Tijuana found five corpses stacked one on top of the other. Investigators say there were four men and one girl. She was between 16 and 18 years old. They say three of the men could be as young as 18.
All of the bodies had gunshot wounds. Investigators found more than 100 spent bullets nearby.
These killings come on the heels of a shootout in Tijuana between soldiers and suspected kidnappers. The gunbattle began Sunday evening and lasted seven hours. It was the second drawn out firefight in a residential neighborhood this year.
In January, Mexican President Felipe Calderon ordered hundreds of soldiers and federal police to Tijuana reinforce the crackdown on drug violence he began the previous year.
Since 2008 began, there have been more than 80 murders. That tops last year's total at this time.
Violence has spiked in recent weeks as the military has become more active in taking on crime.
Amy Isackson, KPBS News.
