Police Drug Shoot-Out Kills 4 in Tijuana

At least four people were reported killed and three seriously injured Thursday in an early-morning shoot-out in Tijuana between Mexican authorities and suspected drug traffickers.

Details of the incident remained sketchy Thursday, with authorities revealing few facts.

Graciela Ruiz, an agent of the federal judicial police in Tijuana, said officials would not provide details on the shooting until Friday. She acknowledged that there were deaths, but could not say how many.

“It’s all being investigated,” Ruiz said.

But reporters for El Mexicano, the leading daily in Baja California, learned that four people were killed and three others wounded in the shoot-out, said Victor Hernandez, the newspaper’s city editor. The shoot-out occurred early in the morning at a ranch known as Los Olivos, within the Tijuana municipal limits but in a rugged area about 15 miles south of downtown, Hernandez said.

In its account for Friday’s editions, Hernandez said, El Mexicano was quoting sources identifying one of those killed as a former chief of the federal police in the Mexican state of Durango. Two other fatalities were believed to be soldiers, the newspaper said.

Among the units reportedly involved in the operation were the federal police, the military and the Baja California state Judicial Police.

The U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which occasionally works with Mexican authorities, was not involved in the operation, said Ron D’Ulisse, a DEA spokesman.

Mexican authorities were reportedly watching the site after receiving information that a large quantity of illicit drugs was being stored there.