Marines Warned Tijuana Too Dangerous for R&R

25-ton seizure is one of the largest in San Diego history

(NEWSER) - US officials seized more than 25 tons of marijuana from drug warehouses in San Diego and Tijuana after finding a 1,800-foot tunnel linking the two. The lighted, ventilated tunnel—which is about six football fields long—was discovered after officials found 10 tons of marijuana in a suspicious tractor-trailer, then another 10 to 15 tons in the warehouse from which the vehicle came. The marijuana seized, worth an estimated $20 million or more, is one of the largest amounts in San Diego history, the Los Angeles Times reports. More»

Murdered California residents told friends they were going clubbing in Mexico

(NEWSER) - The bound, beaten, strangled, and stabbed bodies of four young Americans have been found in a van in Tijuana, AP reports. The the two men and two women left their homes in the San Diego and Chula Vista areas last week to visit Mexican nightclubs. More»

(NEWSER) - Arizona’s three state universities are following the State Department and attempting to dissuade students from spending spring break in Mexican border towns, a traditional pastime, because of drug-associated violence there, the AP reports. One federal official called the warning “sage advice,” noting “documented violence, attacks, killings” and gunfire in public places. “Innocent people have been caught up in that collateral damage,” he said. More»

Man who dissolved bodies may be able to identify kidnap, murder victims

(NEWSER) - Families with loved ones missing in Mexico are hoping that "the stew maker" can give them closure, the Los Angeles Times reports. A day after the arrest of Santiago Meza Lopez—who confessed to dissolving at least 300 bodies for drug cartels—dozens of people lobbied Tijuana police to show Lopez pictures of the missing. Police say they are questioning him with the photos. More»

Cartel branch paid $600 a week for disposal

(NEWSER) - A Mexican man has confessed to chemically dissolving 300 bodies produced by Mexico’s drug war, Reuters reports. A breakaway cartel faction paid Santiago “the Stew Maker” Meza $600 a week to dispose of bodies they brought him, he said. He dumped the bodies in industrial drums filled with caustic soda near Tijuana. “May they forgive me,” he said. The drug war claimed 5,700 in Mexico last year, over twice the number in 2007. More»