TIJUANA'S SLAIN CHIEF REPORTEDLY GOT THREATS

Successor Testifies Boss Told Of Cartel's Warnings

TIJUANA -- Police chief Alfredo de la Torre Marquez received threatening
phone calls on his cellular phone at least two weeks before he was killed
last February, according to Mexican court documents.

The callers said they were from Sinaloa, the Pacific Coast state known as
the birthplace of drug trafficking in Mexico. They offered the chief money
to allow them to operate undisturbed in Tijuana, according to testimony
from Carlos Besne Irigollen, who is de la Torre's successor.

When de la Torre didn't cooperate, the callers apparently threatened him.

Law enforcement officials have denied knowing of any threats against the
police chief before he was ambushed on Feb. 27. But they have been
examining the possibility that the seven men arrested in connection with de
la Torre's death were working for a Sinaloa-based drug cartel.

Besne Irigollen wasn't available for comment about his testimony, which was
reported in a Tijuana newspaper.

Court documents generally aren't considered public information in Mexico.
But Judge Mara de Jesus Lopez Gonzalez, who is overseeing the drawn-out
case, said copies of the documents are sent to attorneys for the accused,
who sometimes share details.

Attempts to locate the attorneys for the seven men were unsuccessful. But
Lopez confirmed portions of the documents by reading them aloud for the
Union-Tribune.

De la Torre told Besne Irigollen about the calls 12 days before the
killing, as the two were together in a cafe. Besne Irigollen was second in
command of the municipal police at the time.

According to the documents, de la Torre told the callers that he only
oversaw crime prevention and that they were asking the wrong person. They
replied that they would see about it.

Although city police are generally first to arrive at crime scenes, they
have no investigative role in homicides or drug-related crimes. They do,
however, decide whether to notify the state or federal authorities who lead
such investigations.

Besne Irigollen told investigators that de la Torre, who was married and
had three children, didn't appear to be too worried about the threats. But
Besne Irigollen did suggest that de la Torre beef up his security,
according to the documents.

More than 100 rounds were fired into de la Torre's car as he drove to work
on a Sunday morning. He was traveling alone, because he wanted his
bodyguards to spend Sundays with their families.

One of the seven men arrested, Jaime Ramon Alcala Garca, allegedly told
investigators that the group had been working for the son of Ismael Zambada
Garca, a reputed drug boss in Sinaloa. Prosecutors said the cartel wanted
to increase its presence in Baja California, which is dominated by the
Arellano Felix cartel.

But Alcala later denied making the statement, and investigators weren't
able to produce enough evidence to get an arrest warrant for Zambada.

Judge Lopez said that while the information about the phone calls was
interesting, it had no effect on the case because investigators never
identified the source of the threats.

"None of the people detained said that their actions came from this, and no
one ever took responsibility for the calls," she said.