Tijuana police officers arrested 90 people Thursday for allegedly extorting drivers waiting in the notoriously long traffic lines in Tijuana to cross into the United States through the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

Some of those arrested Thursday were also trying to sell goods to drivers without proper vendor permits, police said.

Authorities said the alleged extortionists offer to help drivers move their car to another faster lane, demand an illegal payment or “a fine,” and in worst cases, they can become aggressive if drivers refuse to pay or move.

Traffic signs to access the correct lane to cross into the United States from Tijuana in a car can be very confusing.


Police said some of those arrested Thursday have been trying to capitalize on drivers who may be nervous they’ve entered the wrong lane, and unfamiliar with laws and city traffic regulations in Tijuana. Other drivers simply do not want to wait in the hours-long border traffic.

Sometimes the “fines” or payments given to the vendors by U.S. drivers can be several hundreds of dollars, according to both drivers and vendors interviewed during the past several weeks.

Early Thursday morning, dozens of police and authorities from the transit sector flooded into the vehicle lanes on the Mexican side of the San Ysidro Port of Entry. They phased in partial closures of the eastern Fast Track lane to avoid causing severe traffic congestion during their police operation.

About 45 people were taken into custody before noon. Police processed those arrested in the parking lot of the Ley grocery store behind the Pueblo Amigo hotel, and then took them away in a police van.


Some vendors verbally protested their arrest while they sat handcuffed on a curb in the Ley parking lot, saying they were only trying to make a living, and that they help move traffic along by maintaining order at the border crossing.

“They’re violating our rights!” one handcuffed man shouted to a reporter in English from a police van as it drove away.

Police had been investigating some vendors ahead of Thursday’s operation. They said they can follow several different schemes to solicit money from U.S.-bound drivers.

Those schemes include offering to help drivers skip ahead in the line, refusing to move concrete barriers until people pay or frightening people who may have accidentally driven into the faster SENTRI lane without proper documentation, police said.


SENTRI stands for Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection. They’re designated lanes for pre-approved drivers who obtain clearance through a U.S. Customs and Border Protection program and pay a $122 fee. Travelers with a SENTRI pass can typically cross the border by car in 30 minutes or less, while regular lanes can take hours.

There is a potential $5,000 fine in the U.S. for traveling through the SENTRI lane without the pre-approval. Cell phone GPS maps often default to the SENTRI lane, unless a user specifically requests directions to “Ready Lanes” or “all vehicle traffic” lanes.

Once a driver gets into the wrong lane, there’s usually no way to turn back or get out of the long vehicle line because of oncoming traffic behind them and concrete barriers, which Tijuana police said are sometimes illegally moved by vendors.

Tijuana police are warning drivers that cash payments to vendors are not going into any city coffers and they are asking people to avoid paying vendors to help them change lanes. They say it only encourages the criminal behavior.


Director of Tijuana Police Carlos Betancourt Carrillo also asked drivers from the U.S. to respect Tijuana traffic regulations. Betancourt said in addition to U.S. penalties, drivers could face fines and penalties in Mexico like having their car towed, if they purposely enter the wrong lane or try to change lanes in a way that causes more traffic congestion.

Carrillo said prosecuting the alleged extortionists can be tricky because when the victims are from the United States, they often do not want to return to Mexico to file the necessary police reports to keep those responsible in custody for longer than 36 hours.

Tijuana Mayor Arturo González has made maintaining order over the often lawless and congested U.S.-bound border traffic one of the key priorities of his administration which just began on Oct. 1.

“We want order and we have to work with the authorities who are in charge of the border-crossing so we can achieve more expedited crossings,” said González, during an interview with the Union-Tribune earlier this month.


Recently, the city audited the use of “medical lane” passes, also called “Fast Lane” passes and found widespread abuse of a system meant to allow people with medical issues bypass the border traffic.

González said Tijuana city authorities are working to reorder border traffic in a way that does not obstruct mobility across the rest of the city.

“They say ‘Via Rapida’ has converted to the slowest lane in the city because it has practically become several miles (of backed-up traffic) to the east of the city. Then, it paralyzes an important part of Tijuana,” he said of what is supposed to be one of the city’s fastest thoroughfares.

Secretariat of Municipal Citizen Security and Protection Jorge Ayón Monsalve said the goal of the operation was to help ensure drivers have a safe and orderly border-crossing.