TIJUANA State authorities will investigate 11 suspects, among them Jorge Hank Rhon, for their possible involvement in two killings in which two of the weapons seized in his home were used, Baja California Attorney General Rommel Moreno announced Sunday.
Moreno said his investigation will parallel the one being conducted by federal authorities of Hank Rhon and 10 others for allegedly stockpiling weapons.
Meanwhile, supporters of the former mayor continued to gather signatures to protest his detention; they say they have collected nearly 46,000.
The first weapon turned over to state authorities by the federal agency that investigates organized crime, known as Siedo, was a .40 mm semiautomatic pistol, Moreno said.
He said the gun was used in the killing of Martín Feliciano Camacho Ontiveros on June 28, 2010, next to a park in the Río zone, on Francisco Gurría and Rufino Tamayo streets.
The victim sold used cars in the city of San Luis Río Colorado, in Sonora state.
Nine spent shells were found at the crime scene, which were matched by Siedo to the killing, Moreno said.
The second weapon, a .380 semiautomatic pistol, was used in the killing of Olegario Figueroa Leandro, a 48-year-old security guard who was shot to death on Dec. 16, 2009, also in the Río zone, on avenida Lázaro Cárdenas, he said.
Five spent shells, which matched that weapon, and four 9 mm shells from another weapon authorities have not located, were found at the crime scene, he added.
Federal authorities announced that they had seized 88 weapons in Hank Rhon's house around dawn on June 4, including 40 rifles, 48 guns, 9,298 rounds of ammunition, 70 clips and one gas grenade.
Moreno said that his office would begin taking statements from those detained, who stand accused of stockpiling weapons. Nine of them, including Hank Rhon, are behind bars at the state penitentiary at El Hongo, near Tecate. (Two others were allowed to post bail and have been released.)
A district judge must rule by Tuesday, at the latest, whether to charge them formally or free them.
Meanwhile, a businessman who heads a group of Hank Rhon's supporters held a press conference Sunday at a "citizens' camp" to criticize the former mayor's detention.
Octavio Corona, a former president of the National Commerce Chamber in Tijuana, said he was not surprised that two of the seized weapons were linked homicides.
It was obvious to him, he said, that authorities were exploiting the arsenal to implicate Hank Rhon for their own purposes. And he expressed confidence Hank Rhon's defense team would prevail. His attorneys have maintained that the military planted the weapons at the house.
Corona said that as of 1 p.m. Sunday, his group had gathered 45,800 signatures working from camps located in front of Hidalgo Market and at Morelos Park, two of the city's most popular spots. The signatures will eventually be presented to the state Commission on Human Rights.
Hank Rhon's backers have posted stickers, and given away water bottles and t-shirts with the message "We are all Hank" and "I support Hank."
The organizers said the signature-gathering campaign, as well as other acts to support the business magnate, were grassroots efforts.
"We are people who are proud to be good friends of Hank Rhon," said Mario Fajardo, an organizer of one of the camps.
However, employees of Grupo Caliente, who requested anonymity because they feared reprisals, said that many of the people at the camps were employees of Hank Rhon's companies whose supervisors told them to go to there as part of their work.
"They are taking turns. Yesterday (Saturday), the people at the Tijuana Foreign Book had their turn, and today it's the people from Tecate," said one of them.
Omar.millan@sandiegored.com
