Public Safety

Prosecutors Unable To Tie Tijuana Police To Organized Crime

By Amy Isackson / Border Reporter

Published August 23, 2010 at 11:28 AM PDT

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

Blanca Messina, 26, has become the de-facto spokeswoman for the families of three dozen Tijuana policemen who claim they were tortured by the police chief and Mexican soldiers.

Prosecutors Unable To Tie Tijuana Police To Organized Crime

Thirteen Tijuana police officers detained a year-and-a-half ago for their alleged ties to organized crime have been freed. They were arrested as part of an unprecedented crack down on police corruption.

Thirteen Tijuana police officers detained a year-and-a-half ago for their alleged ties to organized crime have been freed. They were arrested as part of an unprecedented crack down on police corruption. Prosecutors could not find evidence against them.

The 13 police officers are part of a group of 25 who were summoned to Tijuana's military base in March 2009.

All say they were tortured so they'd confess their alleged ties to drug cartels.

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They've been held in jail in southern Mexico ever since. Over the weekend, 13 of the 25 were freed.

Blanca Messina's father was one of them. He'd been a policeman in Tijuana for more than 20 years. "The battle continues to free the other dozen officers. But with her dad, it was pure happiness and screams of joy."

Blanca received death threats for championing her dad's and the others' cases and for helping take their torture complaints to the Western Hemisphere's highest human rights court. That investigation continues.

Meanwhile, last week, five civilians accused Tijuana's police chief of civil rights violations and torture.

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Public Safety Drug War Tijuana

Amy Isackson

Amy Isackson was the border reporter at KPBS from 2004 to 2011. She covered breaking news and feature stories on California-Mexico border issues and immigration, for local and national broadcast. Amy got her start in public radio by pitching a series of stories about rural New Zealand - horse dentistry and sheep sheering - to Radio New Zealand's "Country Life" program. She then worked with Peabody Award-winning radio producers Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, to help create the Sonic Memorial, a series of stories on the World Trade Center before, during and after 9/11. Amy's work has been recognized with awards from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association of California and Nevada, the California Chicano News Media Association, and the San Diego Press Club. She won the Sol Price Prize for Responsible Journalism in 2009 from the Society of Professional Journalists for her story about high school students smuggling people and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. Prior to venturing into the wonderful world of public radio, Amy worked for Yahoo! Inc. for nearly five years as an editorial surfer, associate producer and broadcast communications manager. She majored in Latin American History at Williams College. She grew up in San Diego and made frequent trips south of the border.

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