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on the border line between the US and Mexico
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Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Tijuana: Murders for $800

Murders for $800 (pesos)

The wars and conflicts of Tijuana have birthed a bleak, desperate generation of expendable men, and children, who fight for the street corners in the city.  Rarely meeting their alleged 'bosses', middle management for higher profile leaders of the retail cells, they take orders from street level bosses, issuing commands through cell phone and radio communications.  Payment almost always takes the form of crystal.  Or in this case a few hundred pesos, which is the equivalent of roughly $60 dollars, depending on the exchange rate, which is around 15/1 currently.  

What can you buy with $60? An 8th/ounce of crystal in San Diego will run about that.  Maybe $80.  1 gram, or 5 hits of MDMA, or 'molly' of questionable origins.  A few 'fusion' cocktails over brunch in downtown San Diego, on a lazy Sunday, binge eating and drinking through the day.  A few pieces of greasy pizza or hot dogs, 2 packs of cigarettes and a Coca-Cola.  It's not very much money.  And, to many for whom that will never be very much money, they will never meet those who would commit murder for $60. Plus, an ounce of crystal. Or a half ounce.  

Joshua Issac Aguilar Lopez, 19, was arrested late last week in Tijuana, after allegedly assaulting a cab driver.  Lopez was in possession of the ever present packets of packaged crystal for sale, and a 9mm pistol.  He reportedly told his interrogators he was part of the group of 'El Grenas', and was recruited 5 months ago.  He was paid 300 pesos for identifying and scouting rival dealers to kill, and 800 pesos for collaborating on the murder, watching for police, and conducting surveillance.'

With this price structure, one cannot imagine the cost for the actual shooter to be more then 2,000 pesos.  So, we can recreate the comparison above with those figures, or just see the larger picture that murder, kidnappings, executions and their support are all available for a few hundred dollars. Poverty, addiction, apathy, and Mexico's wrenching inequality have created this free market enterprise.  Or not so free.  Because if you collaborate with 'Grenas', his enemies will kill you. If you switch sides, his people will kill you.

One can say "oh, he was a sociopath from birth, just evil personified'.  But, there are many dead, and many killers, and they are not all from that cloth.  To say with a straight face that hundreds and dozens of men, women, children aspired to be killers and lookouts is very difficult.  For me.  Maybe not for others.  

A grim sense of numb disgust comes as one imagine the bodies that turn up all over Tijuana, those that collect their payment, those that issue it, and those that sip the drinks on both sides of the border, whose daily lives don't involve murder, or shootings, or kidnappings, who simply breeze through their days and instagrams of shameless self involvement....as others plot to kill, maim, and kidnap.  

Sources: AFN Tijuana 

43 comments:

  1. 6000 pesos was the cost In Guadalajara

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  2. It's a shame the gap between the rich and the poor is so bad.

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    1. What do you expect...every day is worse, in California soon you be getting paid with water jugs...like the movie mad max...history is always the same rich and poor..I work at a retirement home and I was talking to a ww2 nazi survivor and we have it good compare to good old bob...well not all of us, 43 kids in mexico got smoked by the government....just look around you, everyone and everything is being moved by economic growth, why do you get up every day to go work for??? Money right? In mexico there is no work at least not a decent paying one...why you think all the illegals including myself jumped the fence??? Survival, I rather clean toilets and pick vegetables and take care of old people than be a middle class mexican....in mexico being poor is the equivalent of hell on earth...who needs judgment day when every day is hell with Satan aka peña nieto ....I remember waking up hungry, Goin to sleep hungry, working all day and nite in mexico and I was still poor...the hell with that...

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  3. Back then with the original Arellano syndicate , contracts ran up to 50k -$1mil and a couple pounds of lavada and mota.
    Those days are gone.

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    1. That is complete nonsense. Why would Ramon and Benjamin pay up to a million dollars when they could get someone to do it for a gram of crystal. Stop romanticizing the AFO and stop telling blatent lies, not everyone here is as dumb as you. Moron.

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    2. not at all there still present within the syndicate that is.

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  4. @11:41 Stop romanticizing the past like it was all that. Murder is murder regardless of the amount of $ involved. Where are all the Arrelanos now? Dead or locked the fuck up because their pride and greed got the best of them.

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  5. Long gone. It is pathetic.

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  6. Absolutely no doubt I would say most are not born killers..If these kids had other ways to make money do we still think they'd run around with AKs?Fuck no,no matter what some might say about free will and thought.
    Wealth amongst extreme poverty,its sad for the moneyed tourists who want to drink in peace,but,shit happens..

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    1. Well, ak47's need to be sold, and will be sold, by golly, business need prosper, and you can sell them to drug traffickin' gangbangers and make 10 times your investment in profits, hell yeaaah! It is called "business"...

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  7. Sad. Do you think that if I picked up the airline tickets the same price would apply to my mother in law. JUST KIDDING

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  8. But the arellanos were a gift of the hank rohn family, after their banking operations ran into troubles in texas, "mysteriously", they set up the tijuana/califas operations, some other criminals needed texas all for theirselves...

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    1. --The carrillo juentes tamien ran into trebol in cd juareez, someone wanted THEIR OPERATION, and their billions of dallers...
      --and then the hank rohn CAF also ran into trebol in califas/tijuas cartel land, because someone wanted their drug trafficking, casinos and racetracks and stop them away from las vegas, las Vegas Mafia "industry" of "gaming" who took down the sinful mob to steal their illegal vice business...

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  9. Free market? Take your jab at Capitalism every chance you get. Mexico is ran by socialist communistas. Look everywhere Communism has been implemented. There is always a few very/wealthy powerful. The majority are poor. Stop hating on the evil US.

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  10. I wouldn't want to get paid in crystal, no way

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    1. They can pay me with tacos de asada and a cold beer.

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    2. What exactly is the price YOU would take ro commit murder? I just need to know what a life is worth in your estimate

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    3. I would love to see peña nieto or any other mexican politician murdered for free, and I will eat ten tacos al pastor with cerveza in their honor...
      --guatermalan people are making their own GUILLOTINES in the main plaza...

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  11. 800 pesos? Man thats too much for a piece of shit criminal. It should be around 100 pesos like 7 us dollars.

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    1. 7 dollars are about 3 tacos and tax, no soda...

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  12. these guys could lose their life attempting a hit for $60 no thanx

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  13. These junkies will do anything for their next fix, even halcones get paid 1,500-2,000 pesos a week.

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  14. A man who lives in poverty, but has lots of self worth...will never do such a thing. He will value his life and others, more than that. It all depends on the value, you hold yourself to. If you are lacking...you might just try to make yourself seem more worthy, by selling yourself, at whatever price.These punks, who are doing this,it's giving them a false sense of self worth. They will always value themselves, by what they can see, feel, touch and taste. In reality, we know...there is no value, when it comes to taking any life. Poverty does play a huge role in all areas of life, especially for those suffering from it, but...it doesn't excuse killing someone. We need to find new ways to deal with poverty and its impact. Maybe we wont end up with so many poor kids, who value themselves by, what they have, or don't have in their pockets. Valuing themselves for whats inside of their hearts and minds instead.

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    1. Romantic idealistic foolery..
      We are talking of thousands and thousands of desperate people who never had a chance,born into this kind of life..Your talk of some kind of moral compass is naive to say the least,,,,,usted no entiende

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  15. In USA. They murder for McDonald's meal, Newport cigs, bag of weed, some 40s, and live at grandma's house for free. Even granny is is collecting welfare, so its all about shit pocket change, spending money. Murder for pocket change cus too lazy to even get off grandma's sofa until Jerry Springer show. Doesn't mean Hispanics.

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  16. Really, bashing pizza by referring to it as greasy While the murderers are looked at in aw?

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  17. I rather get paid with like some Girl Scout Cookies :)

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  18. I'll kill for one of those buttery jacks..they're to die for

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  19. This guys aren´t socyopaths, they are just addicts who will do anything for another foco, that´s it.

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  20. It has been going on for a long time, eat it or sell it, o money for lazy ass pinche huevones...
    --that makes them easy prey for cops to catch and make sing, and their competitors quickly know where the offer is...
    --People should be able to sue their employers for their mandatory minimum wage, in cash or company check with tax deductions and everything, then the modafackers would get picky and cut liabilities...

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  21. La verdad es que hay mucho morro pendejo sin ningun estudio y mas peor sin alguien que les diga lo que esta bien y lo que esta mal. Las drogas destruyen y orita el cristal esta pegando fuerte en los barrios pobres aquí en México desgraciadamente la misma raza esta matando a sus propios hermanos no solo con balas si no con droga. Muy triste.

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    1. Happens with every 'ethnicity ' not raza? The human race

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  22. I worked on the streets of Tijuana for almost 7 years 2005-2012..mostly in zona norte which is the redlight and what they call in mexico zona tolerencia...saw many people murdered but the one that stood out was this guy less than 30 yards from me walks up to 2 guys and pops them both in the head with a pistol..cops caught him immediately and he confessed right there on the street that he did it for 400 pesos which at the time was about 34 dollars. There are plenty of guys like him addicts who are so gone they will do anything for a 5 dollar bindle of ice or heroin. you see guys laying on the ground with holes in their legs all the way to the bone from shooting H..cannot tell you how many times we offered to help them and they just don't want it. There is a desperation in that zone like no where else. you have 1000' of people waiting for the chance to cross the border. the majority have been robbed of whatever they have ..sometimes by others in the same boat but more often by the police. in terms of org crime..well i have a long history in that as well but my part was back in the day when it was truly organized. there used to be rules...you did not kill in public it was all done away from public eyes..you did not kill children or woman or you too would be killed..the strategy of the drug war is failed ...by taking out the heads who for the most part were true businessmen what is left is guys who only know and think with their balls and guns.,they are infecting and destroying their own country by pushing drugs into their own barrios and selling to kids...both of which would have been death sentences back when there was order and rules. mexico is now a failed state and it is only going to get worse. there will be seasons of peace but this is now at a point where there is no coming back

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    1. You have a point, but a criminal is a fucking criminal regardless of structure...mexico lacks real laws or implementation or laws same shit people running but wild...I wonder what would happen if let's say a dictador came into Power...wait jajjajajjajaja, peña nieto is all ready a president with el PRI who manage to fuck mexico for 40 plus years...

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    2. Dude,did you sell?Just wondering how many things you would sell in a day,what kind of money?And police,will they pick you up or they let it go depending who you work for?It sounds like the strongest crew owns it now and there are many crews fighting for the right to sell?And their all willing to kill?

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    3. 2:39 The El PRI has been facking mexico up for about 95 years, it's godfathers are sooo happy, they give them sovereign impunity for free and safe harbor for the money they manage to steal and save...

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  23. The holes in the leg all the way to the bone, some say they are caused by krokodil, and others say dirty ingredients and dirty needles with heroin, I don't understand how these rotting people are such a "good business", maybe they were good business when they got first hooked by their best "friends"...
    --"Best Friends" are more dangerous than drugs, later they say you were adult, you should have known better, you were free to "just say.no", and beware of giving your "best friends" any reason to suspect you snitch, nobody can save your ass, least of all your "best friends"...

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    1. My old man , always said there is no such thing as a friend, the closet thing to a real friend is an ak47 because it would never jam on you, also a hundred dollar bill because it would always respond for you in any situation... so if you have best friend and so on good luck you going to need it. I trust no man.

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    2. For real,friends aren't all there cracked up to be..

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  24. So drug addict petty thieves who prefer a fix over help are killing other drug addicted petty thieves? Call me insensitive but I actually see this as a good thing...

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    1. maybe true but you really need to see the state of mind that the main drugs ice and h do to these people..the guy who popped the 2 in the head in broad daylight was so wasted he just stood there until the cops came. to think in that state he or any of them could hit the wrong guy or miss and hit a kid or innocent is not absurd. in the game people die..it is part of the game..but it should go back to only people in the game and be done outside of public eyes. the sad part is these young people who get sucked in think they are going to live the mtv video life girls, money cars bling. but reality is even if they avoid death and jail which is where about 90% end up...aside from a few at the top they are all living day to day

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    2. It is cheaper to just ask if they want help, that way "you asked", then it is on them and up to them to stay that way... I smell a trick there...

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    3. "Guns don't die, people die"

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