[xr650r] from la tiimes --- sunday 11/18 --- interesting story!

[Russell Scott]

Too good not to pass up. Also a riding buddy Gene Lane got third in Sportsman class at this years Baja 1000. R A13 Juggernaut -----Original Message----- From: XR650R@yahoogroups.com [mailto:XR650R@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of Alan Heffernan Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 12:18 PM To: XR650R@yahoogroups.com; Gene Lane Subject: [XR650R] From LA Tiimes --- Sunday 11/18 --- Interesting story! http://youtube.com/watch?v=v9eO4hKTUf8 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=41f_1195189160 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f92_1195357031 A corpse taken from a morgue may be that of a key cartel figure. By Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer November 17, 2007 SAN DIEGO -- Fifty heavily armed men cruised the streets of Ensenada on Wednesday night in an ominous show of force usually reserved for carrying out kidnappings of businessmen or organized crime rivals. But this convoy of 14 vehicles pulled up in front of the city morgue on Calle Guadalupe. The attackers stormed the building, snatched a corpse, loaded it into a vehicle and sped off through the hills toward Tecate, where two police officers had set up a roadblock. "They tried to stop them. The gunmen answered with bullets," said Edgar Lopez, a spokesman for the Baja California state police. Even by the grim standards of violent crime in Baja California, the body-snatching incident set a bizarre precedent. Federal authorities are investigating whether the body is that of drug cartel figure Francisco Merardo Leon Hinojosa, nicknamed El Abulon -- The Abalone. The gunmen fired more than 120 rounds from AR-15s and AK-47s at the officers, killing them before escaping near the wine-growing region of the Valle de Guadalupe. Hundreds of state and federal police officers followed in a fruitless manhunt. In a crime-weary region where masked gunmen often leave a trail of beheaded or torture-marked bodies, people could only speculate on a motive. "Maybe it was sentimental reasons," said David A. Shirk, director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego. The attackers, said Shirk and others, may have wanted to ensure that the man's funeral was attended by his friends. "If he was buried by authorities, they would expose themselves by coming out for any kind of public funeral," Shirk said. The string of events occurred during the Baja 1000, which began Tuesday. The popular off-road race from Ensenada to Los Cabos draws hundreds of competitors from the United States. Among the last-minute entries were two men who registered a black pick-up truck called Azteca Warrior, according to media reports and Ensenada city spokesman Daniel Vargas. One of the men, registered as Pablo Gonzalez, was tracking the race team's progress in a helicopter when it crashed into high-tension wires, killing Gonzalez and another passenger and injuring two pilots. Two people who said they were relatives of Gonzalez showed up at the morgue Wednesday and tried to claim the body, but were not allowed to take it, authorities said. A few minutes later, the gunmen struck. Authorities are investigating whether Gonzalez was really Leon Hinojosa, an alleged lieutenant of the Arellano Felix drug cartel. Mexican authorities believe Leon Hinojosa took on a larger role after the cartel's suspected leader, Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, was arrested last year by U.S. officials. He was sentenced this month to life in prison. Dozens of federal and state police officers Friday guarded the morgue and the hospital where the two helicopter pilots were being treated. More than 1,000 mourners attended the funeral Mass for the two officers, one of whom had five children. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]