Crime is becoming so terrible in Tijuana that residents of the Mexico city are stealing the concertina wire installed on the border to protect their own houses.
City officials said thieves are stealing and selling the same concertina wire installed on the border in November under the Trump administration. Around 20 arrests have reportedly already been made.
Many homes in the area near the border were seen with identical wire in front of their homes as a way to protect themselves behind their property line.
“We have detected that the barbed wire that was installed in the border area is no longer there. We know about the stealing of the concertina (wire) from United States authorities who have asked us for help through the liaison staff,” said Marco Antonio Sotomayor Amezcua, the secretary of public safety in Tijuana.
According to a new report by the Citizens' Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice, Tijuana was the most violent city in the world in 2018. The city experienced about seven killings a day, with homicides rising to historic levels due to gang battles.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection installed the concertina wire to address fears that large crowds of Central American migrants would force their way into the country.
The wire material is distinctive and differs from anything sold in stores in Tijuana. Concertina wire is stronger, sharper and more likely to cause injury than regular barbed wire, which can be found in any home improvement store, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
“The people arrested were mainly Mexican (citizens), and most were people who have been deported from the United States, and people who have problems with drug addiction and live mostly on the street,” Tijuana’s border liaison unit Director Reynaldo González Mora said.
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