Two police officers were suspended for allegedly being involved in an express kidnapping against a dentist who, for four and a half hours, was beaten and robbed of 42 thousand pesos during the morning of Monday, October 14, 2024 in the Buena Vista neighborhood. The two municipal police officers are assigned to the Otay Centenario delegation and an accomplice was arrested for carelessness at the time of the victim’s release.
According to witnesses, the dentist’s deprivation occurred at 7:40 a.m., when the businessman was traveling with his two children in his car through the aforementioned neighborhood. Before reaching the school, a municipal patrol with economic number BC 195A1 stopped him to fine him for not wearing a seat belt. The officers handcuffed him and asked him to get into another white van, supposedly from the “Ministerial Police,” since they told him that he had an arrest warrant from the Federal Police and that they would even transfer him to Mexico City.
“It was confirmed that it was an active element who participated in the kidnapping, in the deprivation of the liberty of a dentist. The element is suspended, we have already notified the Office of the Attorney General and the Attorney General’s Office, which is conducting the corresponding investigation. We immediately confirmed the identity, we confirmed that the unit was effective and the second element and not by last name; we confirmed that this element was inactive, there is a second participant who pretended to be the active element,” explained Juan Manuel Sánchez Rosales, Secretary of Municipal Public Security in Tijuana.
Two uniformed agents got out of the patrol car, but Secretary Sánchez Rosales clarifies that only one is an active agent, the other is not: “We could not confirm that he was on board the patrol car, but he was the one who supposedly put the dentist there.”
A third person involved, not related to the municipal police, was the one who was given the keys to the victim’s car and he took the two minors to their school and signed them in to the educational establishments.
“Allegedly, a unit is the one who approaches the complainant and asks him to get out, however, he tells them that he has to take his children to school and tells about the events, the alleged name of another person involved who is the one who gets into the vehicle where the minors go and is the one who takes them to school,” said Teresita Balderas, the Tijuana City Council’s attorney general.
Hours later he was arrested when the car returned to the Buena Vista neighborhood, where other municipal agents who received the complaint for forced disappearance were already making rounds.
“They intervene, they ask him for a sum of money. The person who is arrested, takes the minors to school, leaves them at school. The victim withdraws an amount of money, if I remember correctly it is 42 thousand pesos and they are demanding the amount of 500 thousand, and it is the moment when he asks for help and they arrest the person named Francisco N. He is linked to a process in preventive detention,” said Maximiliano Ramos, prosecutor of Tijuana.
The businessman’s family reviewed the trajectory of the car by geolocation (GPS), so they warned the Police about the trajectory of the truck and arrested the kidnapper who had just dropped the minors off at school. At noon on October 14, the dentist had transferred the money to his kidnappers and regained his freedom. He decided to protect himself for fear of reprisals, so, until December 2024, he did not ratify the complaint or identify the police officer who allegedly participated in the express kidnapping.
Legally, the case is stalled due to the lack of identification and face-to-face ratification; While the Office of the Comptroller has Arturo and Ivan N suspended, the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) cannot proceed if the direct accusation is not formalized.
“We are waiting for the recognition, an accusation from him and so far it has not been possible, but we continue to insist that he go to the unit (…), once the victim makes a direct recognition of the people involved and act with the criminal extraction,” said Ramos.
“We have 600 cases in the process of evaluation, it is not that they are suspended in the administrative area. We have about 200 amparos, since they are protected, we have to reinstate them to their work activities and follow the process. Those that I can guarantee are suspended since I arrived and those yes, immediately,” explained Secretary Sánchez Rosales.
Formally, in the Office of the Comptroller of Tijuana there are 531 active complaints against municipal police officers, which represents a quarter of the 2,100 established against municipal public servants.
Source: zetatijuana
