Concertina wire that was installed under the Trump administration last year to reinforce southern border barriers is being stolen and repurposed by homeowners in Tijuana, Mexico, for protection amid a crime surge in the city, The San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
Officials in Tijuana have reportedly confirmed the arrests of 15 to 20 people involved in the theft at the border.
Officials said some residents in the Colonia Libertad neighborhood in Tijuana were found to have wire identical to that installed on the border fence being repurposed as an extra layer of protection along their property.
“I don’t actually live here in this house, so I have no idea how that wire got here,” one unnamed woman told the Union-Tribune.
The arrests come as the city reportedly grapples with a historic rise in homicides. The city was ranked as the world’s most violent in a recent report released by the Citizens’ Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice. – READ MORE