Tijuana continues to notch cartel-related homicides with 18 registered in a 24-hour period from Wednesday to Thursday morning. As of Thursday, a total of 146 murders have been recorded in June.

At 10:31 am Wednesday, police responded to a report of a male murder victim in colonia Cañón del Sainz on Avenida Roberto de la Madrid. The victim was already in advanced stages of decomposition with apparent gunshot wounds to the head, back, and chest. Crime scene investigators recovered eight .45 caliber shell casings, according to local media.

A short time later, investigators responded to a report of an unidentified male murder victim of approximately 35 years of age who was shot several times in the head and face on avenida Internacional and Cañón del Matadero. Police later responded to a residence on calle Sierra Madre in colonia Urbi Villa del Prado, where unidentified male and female murder victims were gunned down.

The next incident was reported in front of Santa Gema Cemetery on Enrique Luna Street, where an unidentified 35-year-old male was discovered with multiple gunshot wounds to the head. Investigators recovered numerous .40 caliber and 9mm casings.

In Zona Norte on Avenida Baja California, an unidentified murder victim was found with multiple gunshot wounds. A short time later, investigators responded to Colonia Ampliación Loma Bonita. A young man identified as Avisalil Álvarez Valdez, 23, was murdered inside a house.

Police later responded to a male body identified as Ernesto Garduño Santamaria, 34, inside a plastic garbage container in colonia El Refugio.

In colonia El Florido, two more gunshot homicide victims were discovered. Hector Paredes Contreras, 60, and Francisco Saavedra Aguilar, 35, on Calle Azafrán, both were shot multiple times by an unknown assailant aboard a Nissan Pathfinder, according to witnesses.

The first homicide reported on Thursday morning occurred in colonia Playas de Tijuana, where an unidentified male victim was shot multiple times by an unknown male. The victim was struck in the head and chest. The next victim was discovered in colonia Murua, where a badly burned victim was found inside a Taxi wrapped in plastic and enclosed within a tarp.

The next victim, an unidentified male, was found in the Loma Blanca section of Tijuana. Another male victim was discovered in colonia Altiplano. The last reported case occurred in colonia October 3 where an unidentified male victim of approximately 30 years of age was recovered. He had been shot multiple times.

A recent report from the State Attorney General’s Office indicated that only 17 percent of 1,170 murder cases in Tijuana in 2019 have been prosecuted due to an extreme backlog.

The bloodshed is generally related to turf wars involving street-level dealers aligned with either the Cártel Tijuana Nueva Generación (CTNG) and El Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, against the Sinaloa Cartel.

Tijuana finished 2018 with a record-breaking 2,508 homicides, which was later adjusted upward by the state attorney general’s office to 2,518.

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.)