Concertina wire installed on the top of fencing at the border between San Diego, Calif., and Tijuana is being stolen by people in Mexico and used to boost security around their own residences.
More than a dozen people have been arrested since last week in connection with stealing the military-grade razor wire that troops have been adhering onto the border fence, Tijuana’s border liaison unit director, Reynaldo Gonzalez Mora, told the San Diego Union Tribune.
“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,” Gonzalez said.
Some of the stolen circular razor wire was spotted installed around the homes of Tijuana residences in the Colonia Libertad neighborhood. The wire is unlike anything being sold in stores, one official said.
“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 Tijuana’s Public Safety Secretary Marco Antonio Sotomayor Amezcua.
The thefts come in the midst of record-high crime in Tijuana. The Citizens’ Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice recently declared Tijuana the most violent city in the world last year.
The galvanized steel wire was first installed in November after active-duty troops were deployed to border states to enhance security as thousands of Central American migrants traveling as part of a caravan made their way to Tijuana.
About 500 of the group’s members tried to ambush the border in late November and smaller breaches have continued in the San Diego region in the months since then, according to tweets from Customs and Border Protection’s San Diego account.
