Baja California Attorney General María Elena Andrade said an unusually high number of municipal police officers in Tecate are requesting medical leave as cover for working with organized crime. The Fiscalía General del Estado (FGE), the state prosecutor’s office, identified Tecate as having the highest rate of disability claims among municipal police, followed by Ensenada and Mexicali.
The FGE is now investigating ISSSTECALI, the state employee health insurance agency, to determine whether doctors are helping officers obtain fraudulent disability paperwork. Andrade said she has been in talks with health authorities to find out if medical staff are complicit in the scheme.
Active Officer Arrested With Drugs, Linked to Los Rusos
Last week, authorities arrested an active-duty municipal police officer in the Valle de Mexicali during an operation. The officer was found carrying drugs. Andrade confirmed the officer had ties to the Los Rusos cartel, a criminal organization that has operated in the Mexicali Valley and surrounding areas.
Andrade addressed whether the state’s trust exams, known as C3 evaluations, are failing to screen out corrupt officers. She said the exams are not the problem. An officer can pass C3 screening and be recruited by a cartel weeks or months later, she explained, making periodic evaluations insufficient as a sole safeguard.
Long History of Cartel Infiltration in Tecate
Police corruption in Tecate is not a new problem. The small border city, located about 50 kilometers east of Tijuana, has faced repeated scandals involving officers tied to criminal organizations. In 2009, federal authorities arrested ten Tecate officers, including a commander, for suspected links to drug cartels. A 2024 investigation by Border Center News reported that more than 40 officers were connected to organized crime, with several killed because of their involvement.
In 2021, a public incident saw Tecate police officers draw weapons on each other following a murder linked to cartel affiliations. That year, reports confirmed the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) was using Tecate as an operational base, contributing to a surge in local violence.
The current FGE investigation goes beyond individual officers by targeting the institutional infrastructure that may enable corrupt activity. By scrutinizing ISSSTECALI’s role in issuing medical leave, prosecutors are examining whether state health systems are being exploited as part of cartel operations.
Tecate sits on the U.S. border across from San Diego County. Its port of entry typically operates from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. The city is a designated Pueblo Mágico and draws visitors for its craft breweries and the nearby La Rumorosa mountain pass.
The story was first reported by The Baja Post.