Gunmen shot the commissioner of the El Hongo prison system in the head and arm Tuesday night as he traveled in an official vehicle on the Tecate-Tijuana highway, according to Baja California media reports.
Ramiro Tolentino Reyes, the penitentiary commissioner overseeing the CERESO (Centro de Reinserción Social) El Hongo facility in Tecate, was attacked at approximately 7:42 p.m. on May 12. The ambush took place just before the La Esperanza toll booth, beneath a pedestrian overpass near the Colonia Miguel Alemán neighborhood.
Attackers Dressed in Black Fled Toward Tijuana
Armed men dressed in black pulled alongside the official vehicle and opened fire. Tolentino Reyes was riding with another prison agent and was transporting an inmate at the time of the attack. The gunmen fled in another vehicle heading toward Tijuana after the shooting.
Tolentino Reyes suffered gunshot wounds to his head and arm. His condition was not immediately disclosed. The status of the accompanying prison agent and the inmate being transported was not detailed in initial reports.
Third Armed Incident in Tecate That Day
The attack on the prison commissioner was the third armed incident recorded in Tecate on Tuesday. Earlier that day, a man was killed in a shooting in the city’s downtown area. In a separate event, another individual was detained after firing a weapon just meters from a preschool in the Colonia La Bondad neighborhood.
The Tecate-Tijuana highway is a major corridor used daily by commuters, commercial trucks, and travelers moving between the two border cities. The La Esperanza toll booth area sits along the main toll road connecting Tecate to Tijuana, roughly 30 miles to the west.
El Hongo Prison Under Scrutiny
The El Hongo CERESO has faced recent scrutiny. A prison guard at the facility was caught smuggling drugs into the institution in a separate incident. The shooting of a senior prison official on a public highway, while transporting an inmate, points to security challenges facing Baja California’s penitentiary system.
Tecate, a small Pueblo Mágico city of roughly 110,000 residents on the U.S. border east of Tijuana, has experienced periodic violence linked to organized crime. No arrests in connection with Tuesday’s highway attack had been announced as of early Wednesday. The incident was first reported by Semanario Zeta.