Four U.S. fugitives have been detained in Baja California in recent years thanks to the Mexican state’s international tip line.
Baja California law enforcement authorities presented results of its anonymous crime report hotline (1-866-201-5060) that can be called from the U.S. The numbers aren’t big but authorities insist the tip line is an important way for visitors to denounce crimes or provide information to the police without fear of reprisal.
Authorities have received more than 300 calls from the U.S. since the crime hotline was launched in 2009. About 60 percent of the calls were related to crimes or emergencies; the rest of the calls were from people seeking information (1 percent were prank calls).
The majority of calls to the tip line were about telephone fraud and extortion.
Authorities have received 13 calls related to the kidnapping of migrants. They said they had rescued one migrant because of a telephoned tip from the U.S.
Authorities also received nine complaints alleging corrupt public servants over the tip line, nine calls about organized crime, and two tips about drugs crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
Calls to the anonymous tip line within Mexico (089) are much more frequent: Baja California authorities said they received 24,000 of them last year.
