Tijuana police are now armed with slingshots!

Tijuana police issued slingshots

Guns confiscated amid allegations of collusion with drug runners

TIJUANA, Mexico – The police department has issued about 60 slingshots to officers in the violent border city of Tijuana, where soldiers confiscated police weapons two weeks ago on allegations of collusion with drug traffickers.

Municipal police spokesman Fernando Bojorquez said Monday that the slingshots, along with bags of ballbearings, were given to officers patrolling areas of the city visited by tourists.
Tijuana’s police force of 2,000 officers has been without guns since Jan. 5, but some patrol alongside armed state police.

President Felipe Calderon sent 3,300 soldiers and federal police to Tijuana at the beginning of January to hunt down drug gangs. The soldiers swept police stations and took officers’ guns for inspection amid allegations by federal investigators that a corrupt network of officers supports smugglers who traffic drugs into the U.S. The weapons are still being checked.

About 100 police demonstrated outside Tijuana town hall on Monday demanding the return of their guns. “The arms are our tools for work,” said officer Juan Manuel Nieves. “Do they want more police to be killed?”

More than 300 people were slain in Tijuana last year including 13 police officers.

Well they’re still a bit more heavily armed than British police officers, but this is a very amusing development! If you’ve been to TJ the Federales tend to be a frightening sight, mexicans with automatic weapons who can throw you in jail for looking at them wrong. They tend to have no qualms planting evidence on your person (happened to a number of people I know) and throwing you in jail. They are very open to bribes though – and they often use their corruption to make money.

There was a time in TJ when my cousin and I were driving a rental car down there (oops!) and on our way back we got pulled over by a TJ officer who told us we went the wrong way down a road (yeah right) and we had to follow him to the station to pay a fine of $80. My cousin was wise enough to ask, “Can we pay here?” and he told us that would only be $40… so we handed it over and he left. Not a bad deal for him, getting 40 for bringing false charges against some tourists…

Anyway, the world will probably be a better place when Federales are armed now only with slingshots.

Mark

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