Shocking video shows Mexican drug cartels in shootout that left 11 dead in violence plagued Baja California region
- Violence erupted at a local car race in Ensenada, Mexico on Saturday that left 11 dead and seven injured, according to local reports
- The violence was reportedly the result of a gang confrontation stemming from control of local trafficking routes into the United States
- Baja California, which lies directly south of the US border, is a prime location for cartel violence as groups fight to control important trafficking routes
An armed cartel member can be seen gunning down attendees of a car race in Ensenada, Baja California in horrifying video posted on Twitter.
The video shows several men wielding guns and shooting at cars about 2:18 pm Saturday.
Rounds of automatic weapon fire can be heard firing nonstop in the footage posted by Mexican journalist Alfredo Alvarez.
The carnage reportedly left 11 dead and seven injured and sent terrified witnesses scrambling across the street to try and hide from the danger.
A confrontation at a gas station in Ensenada on Saturday reportedly left 11 people dead and nine injured
Mexican journalist Alfredo Alvarez said the massacre in Ensenada stemmed from a confrontation between members of the Arellano Felix Cartel (CAF) and the Sinaloa Cartel
According to Alvarez’s news site, the massacre in Ensenada stemmed from a confrontation between members of the Arellano Felix Cartel (CAF) and the Sinaloa Cartel.
The massacre occurred at the San Vicente gas station, close to where where participants in the race fueling up their cars.
Alvarez’s site reported that the State Attorney General’s Office was sending a special team to the crime scene to open an investigation.
The Mexican Army, National Guard, and State and National Police were also dispatched to the scene.
Cartels in Baja California, which lies directly below the border with the United States, feud over territory in an effort to control important drug and human trafficking routes.
Victims lay strewn about at the bloody scene in Ensenada on Saturday
Earlier this week, the Secretary of the Navy of Mexico reported the seizure of more than 39 tons of cocaine in the port of Ensenada.
The naval unit reported that ‘personnel from the Second Naval Region, in coordination with the Customs and Maritime Authorities of the Port of Ensenada, secured three containers, which were on board a container ship and stored approximately 39,820 kilograms inside’ of material determined to be cocaine.
Security analyst David Saucedo said in 2022 a change in Mexico’s drug policy since last year, when soldiers at roadside bases simply watched as cartels battled for control of the western state of Michoacan with bomb-dropping drones, IEDs and land mines.
A map highlighting the six of 32 Mexican states that the US State Department currently has listed under its most severe ‘do not travel’ category, due to local cartels that may rob and/or kidnap American tourists
Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, North America – where cartels fight to control important drug and human trafficking routes into the US
Saucedo said the change may have angered the cartels. Government officials have also been making more attempts to capture drug lords.
Mexico’s seizures of meth labs and the synthetic opioid fentanyl have risen sharply in recent months.
‘There has been a change in the strategy in fighting drug cartels. Andrés Manuel (President Andrés Manuel López Obrador) has been very much criticized recently for his ‘hugs, not bullets’ strategy,’ Saucedo said.
‘I think that due to pressure from Joe Biden, he is changing that and agreeing to capture high-profile drug traffickers.’
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