Baja State Police

The Baja State Police are a local force whose role in the novel is inseparable from the struggle between the Barreras and Güero Méndez. Controlled by the Barreras, the force operates not simply as a public law-enforcement body but as part of the cartel contest over territory, drugs, and political authority in Baja California.

Allegiance in the cartel war

The division of police power is explicit: the Barreras control the Baja State Police, while Güero controls the federal police. Tijuana’s city police are described as more or less neutral, leaving the state and federal forces aligned on opposite sides of the conflict. The Special Tactical Group, an elite unit led by Antonio Ramos, adds a new and potentially consequential force to this divided landscape.

The Barreras use their local position to assert that Güero cannot dislodge them from Baja. They present their presence in the region as proof that they can reach their rival’s interests in Baja and San Diego, while Güero, based in Culiacán, has not been able to eliminate them in Tijuana. The state police’s alignment thus reflects a broader contest over who can exercise power locally, not merely who controls drug shipments.

Enforcement as cartel business

Adán describes the war’s benefit to police and military forces as part of a system in which rival organizations’ enforcement actions can be converted into revenue. Güero pays officers to seize Barrera drugs; the Barreras pay their own people to seize Güero’s. A seizure can make officers appear effective to the press and to American observers, while a later sale returns the confiscated drugs to the competing organization.

Adán gives a specific example involving the Baja State Police: after the force seizes one million dollars’ worth of Güero’s cocaine, the Barreras pay a $100,000 finder’s fee. After an interval, they buy the seized cocaine back for $500,000. The operation makes the seizure serve several purposes at once: it provides a public display of enforcement, rewards the officers, and redirects the drugs into the rival cartel’s hands. The account presents corruption not as an isolated bribe but as a working arrangement that turns police activity into a component of the drug economy.

Presence and significance

The force also appears through an individual encounter: a Baja state police driver rolls down his window and asks whether there is a problem. The brief exchange gives the organization a visible presence in the everyday security environment, while the wider account establishes how little that presence guarantees neutrality.

The Baja State Police embody the novel’s contrast between the appearance of public order and the private loyalties governing its enforcement. Their alignment with the Barreras, set against Güero’s influence over federal officers and Ramos’s separate elite unit, makes policing part of the cartel war itself. Seizures, payments, and the recovery of confiscated drugs show how law enforcement can be absorbed into the competition it is supposed to contain.