Federal police flock for operation

TIJUANA – Hundreds of federal police arrived in Baja California yesterday to join forces with state and municipal agencies launching a new front against organized crime.
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Members of the Federal Preventive Police swarmed Tijuana's bustling Rio Zone yesterday afternoon, but the agency remained tight-lipped about plans, leaving state officials to explain the purpose of this latest operation.
Baja California's attorney general, Rommel Moreno, said about 1,000 officers would be arriving in the state, “and if it's necessary, we could be speaking of up to 2,000.” He did not give a timetable.
Salvador Juan Ortíz, a deputy state attorney general in Tijuana, said, “I consider it the response . . . to the requests from the governor and the attorney general for more support in the region.”
Gov. José Guadalupe Osuna Millán, who took office in November, has vowed a united front against crime in Baja California together with the federal government and the state's five new mayors.
The officers' arrival yesterday comes a year after President Felipe Calderón announced Operation Tijuana, touted as a major offensive against high-impact crimes such as kidnapping, homicides, drugs and weapons trafficking.
Operation Tijuana began with the disarming of Tijuana's 2,300-member police force, accused by federal authorities of being infiltrated by organized crime. It also included roadblocks across the region.
“It's fine that they come, but the question is, what are they going to do?” said José María Ramos, a researcher at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, a Tijuana think tank.
Such operations can yield short-term results, Ramos said, but governments need to take long-term measures such as establishing crime-prevention programs and increasing the efficiency of prosecutions.
Source : Signon San Diego