Drug violence spreads in Baja California

ENSENADA, Mexico, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Parts of Mexico's Baja California state that had mostly been spared from a wave of drug gang slayings have now also come under siege, officials said.

Mexican authorities said armed men Monday shot and killed a federal police officer and the son of a prominent Mexicali politician in a drive-by shooting in Ensenada, Mexico, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

The slayings were believed to be part of a relentless drug cartel war that has enveloped Tijuana and Rosarito Beach in Baja California for weeks and marked the spread of the violence to the south of the border cities, officials said.

Meanwhile, the violence continued in and around Tijuana, as well. The bodies of two men were found Sunday night in Tijuana's eastern Valle Bonito neighborhood, showing signs of torture with adhesive tape over their eyes and gunfire-shattered skulls, the Baja California attorney general's office told the Times-Union.