Fox News reports that at least 10 people are dead and several others are injured following an ambush-type attack that occurred in Baja, California.
The incident took place on Saturday during Cachanillazo, a two-day all-terrain off-road vehicle rally that is held in Baja every year.
The ambush occurred at 2:18 p.m. local time, when the racers paused by a gas station along the Transpeninsular Highway in San Vicente, Ensenada.
It appears that Mexican drug cartels were involved.
While participants were stopped at the gas station, a group of individuals emerged from multiple gray vans with long guns and began firing at the participants.
The ambushers then got back in their vehicles and fled the scene.
The damage was done, and some of it was caught on video, which can be found on social media. ABC News reports:
Video purportedly of the shooting was posted on social media, showing off-road vehicles lined up along a road and capturing the sounds of screams and numerous rounds of gunfire. Several people who appeared to have been shot were seen in the online footage lying on the ground.
Several entities - including state police, the Marines, and the Mexican Red Cross - responded to the scene.
At the time of this writing, reports are indicating that at least 19 people were shot during the attack. And, of those 19, at least 10 of the individuals have died.
Mexican journalist Alfredo Alvarez, who was at the scene, reports that the ambush involved Mexican drug cartels. Specifically, Alvarez writes that the shooting was a confrontation between members of the Arellano Felix Cartel (CAF) and the Sinaloa Cartel.
Local outlets have reported that the ambushers were targeting a member of the CAF cartel. And this member, who was killed in the shooting, was being investigated by the U.S. government for drug trafficking.
Several details about the incident remain unclear. An investigation has been ordered by Baja California State Attorney General Ricardo Ivan Carpio Sanchez, according to Ensenada Mayor Armando Ayala Robles.
Thus far, it does not appear as though any arrests have been made.
The racing event took place roughly 90 miles south of the southern border, where illegal immigration has been taking place at record rates during the administration of President Joe Biden. The latest surge has followed Biden's recent decision not to renew Title 42 - the Trump-era public health policy that was used to rapidly expel illegal immigrants during the COVID-19 pandemic.
