Lawyer Shot Dead in Tijuana

In what Mexican police said may be a drug-related slaying, a well-known Tijuana lawyer and occasional journalist was machine-gunned to death early Thursday as he drove his car on a Tijuana road, according to the Mexican State Judicial Police.

The lawyer, Eleuterio Cachu de la Cerda, was killed at about 1:30 a.m. on the highway between downtown and the Playas de Tijuana neighborhood, according to Gustavo Romero Meza, chief of the State Judicial Police in Tijuana.

According to police officials, Cachu was driving between his downtown office and his home when a vehicle pulled alongside his car and unknown assailants opened fire with machine guns. Eight bullets were found in his body; his car was riddled with many others. The assailants fled.

Cachu’s body was found inside the car, which crashed after the attack. According to an account being published today in the newspaper El Mexicano, police found $903 in the victim’s possession.

Romero, the police official, said the high-powered weapons and the method of killing may indicate the involvement of drug traffickers, although he would not comment on a specific motive. He said the investigation was continuing.

As a lawyer in the federal courts, Cachu may have defended accused drug traffickers. He was also an occasional contributor to several Mexican newspapers, including El Heraldo in Tijuana.