Photo: Catholic Herald

By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF    

Police in Mexico’s northwestern state of Baja California on Friday, Oct. 12, reported the apparent murder of a Roman Catholic priest in the border town of Playas de Rosarito, just outside Tijuana.

The alleged homicide of Ícmar Arturo Orta was reported to authorities on Sunday, Oct. 14, by Tijuana Archbishop Francisco Moreno Barron.

Orta was apparently shot while driving his car by assailants in an gray Yukon SUV.

A subsequent search of the area revealed 9 mm shell casings.

Additional details of and the suspected motive for Orta’s death have not been released by the Baja California authorities, but at least 26 priests have been killed in Mexico during the last six years under the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto.

Also, Baja California registered no less than 2,000 murders in 2017, most of which were linked to an ongoing war between feuding drug cartels.