The deputy state attorney general in Tijuana announced the arrests of five kidnappers and the rescue of one victim during a press conference.

The deputy attorney general said the five suspects were arrested on Wednesday for the May 18 kidnapping of a local businessman in which four males armed with long rifles pretending to be police used two pickup trucks equipped with strobe lights.

The rescue operation was carried out in colonia Zermeño by investigators with the state attorney general’s anti-kidnapping unit, which resulted in the release of the victim and arrests of five suspects along with the seizure of long weapons and cloned police vehicles. The five kidnapping suspects were identified as Sozy Abdad N., Sirak Anwar N., Leonel Guadalupe N., José Adrián N., and Edwin Enrique N.

Breitbart Texas reported extensively on the cartel violence raging in Tijuana and two prior kidnapping cases in April 2018. In one, municipal and state police exchanged gunfire during a rescue operation that resulted in the arrests of five suspects.

In the second kidnapping case from April, police responded to an abandoned warehouse after receiving a call for assistance from a presumed 31-year-old victim who escaped his captors. The victim led police to two others inside. One was dead with signs of trauma and the second was injured and later taken to a hospital. Police later arrested three kidnapping suspects.

In 2017, Tijuana finished the year with 13 reported kidnapping cases. In the first four months of 2018, there have been nine reported kidnapping in Baja California with seven in Tijuana alone.

According to the State Deputy Attorney General José María González, a total of 31 people were arrested by the state’s anti-kidnapping unit and seven crews were dismantled since the start of 2018.

Kidnapping, until recently, was very rarely reported by families or friends of victims due to the lack of trust in Mexican law enforcement. Many utilized private security or kidnapping experts. Another problem in Mexico is that some local officials will suppress statistics for political purposes.

Robert Arce is a retired Phoenix Police detective with extensive experience working Mexican organized crime and street gangs. Arce has worked in the Balkans, Iraq, Haiti, and recently completed a three-year assignment in Monterrey, Mexico, working out of the Consulate for the United States Department of State, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Program, where he was the Regional Program Manager for Northeast Mexico (Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Durango, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas.) You can follow him on Twitter. He can be reached at robertrarce@gmail.com