ARRESTS GIVE TIJUANA CAUTIOUS HOPE, RELIEF

Reports Link Police Official To Assassination Of Chief

TIJUANA - As fresh details emerged yesterday about the men accused of
killing Tijuana's police chief and 14 others, residents of this crime-weary
city reacted with skepticism as well as hope that justice might prevail.

At least seven suspects are now in custody, charged with a series of
killings including the slaying of police Chief Alfredo de la Torre Marquez,
who was shot 57 times as he drove to work Feb. 27. Two of the suspects once
worked for the city, one as a police officer, the other as a city
inspector, Mayor Francisco Vega de Lamadrid said.

The Associated Press and Mexican media reported that an assistant police
chief and a police officer may have ordered the shooting of de la Torre,
then fled to the United States.

According to the reports, the seven suspects were to be paid $15,000 by
Assistant Police Chief Juan de Dios Montenegro but never saw the money. The
other officer was identified as Praxedis Osuna Solis.

All the men arrested are said to have confessed to working for a drug lord
based in the Pacific Coast state of Sinaloa.

Few in this city of 1.3 million are saying with certainty that the arrests
will end the wave of drug-related violence. But there was praise for the
effort made by city, state and federal police to work together to solve the
recent killings. There was also new hope that the drug lords could be
confronted.

"This is a first step," said Mayor Francisco Vega de Lamadrid. "What we are
hoping is that ... this type of cancer is eradicated from the city."

"I'd like to believe that this is true," said Jaime Martnez Veloz, a state
representative. "But I want this announcement to be accompanied by proof of
what they are saying."

Tijuana has been reeling in recent months from a rash of executions, many
of them related to the city's illicit drug trade. The seven detainees
allegedly told police that they had been hired by Ismael "Mayo" Zambada, a
drug boss. Authorities say Zambada has been trying to take over the Baja
California drug routes controlled by the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix drug
cartel.

Baja California Gov. Alejandro Gonzalez Alcocer vowed to spare no efforts
in investigating the crimes. Now "there is a joint willingness to fight
against crime," Gonzalez said.

Collaboration among city, state and federal police agencies led to the
arrests, the governor said. Such collaboration has been elusive in the past
because the police agencies have accused each other of being controlled by
organized crime. In 1994 there even was a shootout between state and
federal police.

Jorge Villalobos, head of Baja California's State Council on Public Safety,
made up of representatives of the public and private sector, told a Tijuana
radio station that it was too early to start celebrating.

He said he applauds the arrests. But he stressed that law-enforcement
officials "should seriously focus" on building a strong legal case so
judges can't easily release the suspects or set bail.

One problem is that residents have grown skeptical of official
pronouncements, said Victor Clark, head of the Tijuana-based Binational
Center for Human Rights.

"There is a lack of trust in authorities," Clark said.

Over the past decade there have been many high-profile killings in Baja
California, but rarely have the masterminds been caught and punished.

It is not uncommon for police and former police officers to be linked to
crime in Mexico. Often underpaid, undertrained and underequipped, they can
be easy prey for organized crime. Even high-ranking officials aren't immune
to bribes and threats from drug cartels vying for control of the region.

At Tijuana's downtown police headquarters, Officer Martn Placencia, a
12-year veteran, remembered some of the accused as good officers who worked
hard to combat crimes and gangs.

"They were my friends, my former co-workers, and who knows why they
changed?" Placencia said. "Possibly when they left they wanted to earn some
easy money and that's how they got involved in this."

One of the suspects identified as a former city employee was Jaime RamF3n
Alcala Garca, alias "El Raymond," who had been a member of the elite
Special Forces unit since 1992 and was fired in 1997 because of "loss of
confidence" by his superiors. The other was Juan Carlos Juarez Rivas, alias
"El Patu," a former city inspector who left of his own volition in 1990.