American Hitmen Caught in Stolen Audi with Assault Rifle in Tijuana

Two young men from California were arrested in Tijuana this week after police found them in a stolen Audi with an assault rifle, and one of them had an active warrant for homicide back home.

Isaac Eduardo, 24, from Santa Barbara, and Joshua Steven, 18, from Los Angeles, were detained by Baja California state police on the streets of the Los Laureles neighborhood after officers spotted them in a gray Audi A4 with California plates behaving erratically on the Paseo de la Montaña ramp.

According to the Baja California Secretariat of Citizen Security (SSCBC), one of the men was seen frantically trying to remove something from the dashboard, a maneuver that caused him to lose control of the vehicle and nearly crash into the patrol car. When officers approached, they found a rifle grip visible between the center console and the driver's seat. The weapon turned out to be a 7.62 x 33mm caliber long gun.

Intelligence reports identify both men as members of a criminal organization responsible for supervising drug distribution points in the Los Laureles and Playas de Tijuana neighborhoods. Their job, according to authorities, was kidnapping and killing for the group.

The discovery that Joshua Steven carries an active homicide warrant from the United States adds an international dimension to the case. He's now facing extradition proceedings on top of the Mexican charges.

Both men were turned over to the federal Attorney General's Office (FGR) for firearms charges. The state Attorney General's Office (FGE) will handle the homicide, kidnapping, and drug trafficking cases.

The arrest is the latest in a string of detentions of American citizens operating as cartel enforcers in Tijuana, a city that has become a key battleground in the ongoing turf wars between rival factions fighting for control of drug corridors into Southern California. The use of American nationals as shooters on the Mexican side of the border is a well-documented trend, offering cartels operatives with clean records in Mexico and easy access to US weapons markets.

The stolen Audi, the California plates, and the assault rifle paint a picture of cross-border criminal logistics that neither country's law enforcement has managed to disrupt.