Hundreds of Mexican military troops were flown into Tijuana on Saturday to beef up street patrols after armed gangs hijacked and burned at least a dozen vehicles in the border city, the latest in a wave of attacks hitting civilians across the country.
U.S. consulate staff were ordered to shelter in place Friday evening but no one was reported injured in the Tijuana hijackings that snarled traffic across the city and temporarily blocked access to one of the world’s busiest border crossings. Roughly 350 national guard troops were flown in on Saturday to reinforce thousands of federal troops already in the state of Baja California, daily Reforma reported on its website.
Simultaneous hijackings occurred in four other cities in Baja and authorities arrested at least 17 people, Milenio TV reported. Tijuana is home to the San Ysidro-El Chaparral ports of entry, the busiest U.S. border crossing.
