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We barely slow down at red lights as cars pull out of our way.
We practically take off screaming down a steep stretch of road.
We are on board a Red Cross ambulance responding to an emergency call in the northern Mexican city of Tijuana. It is one of the most dangerous cities in the world.
A team of two, speaking into the walkie-talkie, asks for details of the emergency.
“It’s a shooting,” Paramedic Zolma Cruz told me. “We get up to ten a day sometimes,” she says when we see blue lights flashing in the distance and we pass a National Guard vehicle with a soldier holding a machine gun, silhouetted against the night sky.
Photo: Paramedic Zolma Cruz believes much of the violence is related to the growing fentanyl trade
As we approach, what is now a crime scene as well as a medical emergency, I can see that the streets of one of the most cartel infested neighborhoods in this city are full of police and military.
A second ambulance is surrounded by locals, watching, and I can see the ambulance teams inside treating a man who appears to be conscious.
“It’s stable but critical,” Zolma tells me, as she grabs her oxygen canister and shock pack and heads to help her colleagues.
Zulma is an experienced medic, accustomed to the dangerous presence of the security forces and the stars of the local community, many of whom are associated with or are part of the cartel.
This is another gang assassination attempt – the patient was shot in the head.
Three gangs are fighting for control of Tijuana – the Sinaloa Cartel, Jalisco New Generation, and the Tijuana Cartel.
There are more than 2,000 murders a year – that’s more than six murders a day. To put it bluntly, just over 100 people were killed in London last year.
This is insane, and only Red Cross teams can save lives here on the streets.
Zulma told me that sometimes while she was trying to save the lives of other injured victims, cartel gunmen approached her and told her to stop treatment.
Her Red Cross colleague, who asked not to be named, said the militants could not be persuaded.
One of the gang members said to me, “This guy dies here, and then shoot him again.”
“We just had to walk away.”
I asked Zulma if she thought a lot of this street violence and mayhem was related to the growing fentanyl trade.
Without hesitation, she replied, “It sure is, it sure is.”
“I think it has something to do with it all, the drugs, the cartels and street vending fights, and sometimes they cross into each other’s territory…”
Another Red Cross call, this time for a fentanyl overdose.
Their medics carry the antidote to fentanyl poisoning – one of the most toxic drugs in the world.
Read more: Inside a secret fentanyl lab
It’s called Narcan, and it can save the lives of those who nearly died.
They arrived at the scene while the fire brigade was administering first aid. Paramedic Alan Lyon jumps in and prepares to give the victim Narcan.
He spoke briefly with family members gathered around the victim, unconscious on a sidewalk in a quiet residential area.
The man is completely unresponsive. His name is Juan, and he is dying.
Alan orders a policeman holding the drip to lift him up.
He then runs the Narcan directly into the cannula, and into the victim’s vein, while explaining to his colleagues in the emergency service what he is doing.
They are all waiting. Time is of the essence and they hope to catch this victim in time.
Alain presses a fist to Juan’s chest and tells everyone to wait.
He feels Juan’s chest again and then there is a sudden movement – Narcan runs.
Moments later, Juan, completely surprised, sat up and clutched the medical equipment around him.
He says, “I’m fine, I’m fine.” It’s really very cool
Alan tells him to wait a minute, then gives him another shot at Narkan.
“It reverses the fentanyl,” he told Juan.
A few minutes later, Juan is standing and leaning against a car parked nearby – speaking, he’s shocked he’s alive.
His wife and young son, who had watched the whole scene unfold, hugged him as he shocked our producer.
Fentanyl use, fentanyl trafficking, gang wars, death and murder – ambulance staff see them every day, and they are all linked.
Read more: Inside a secret drug lab: Gunshot wounds, lethal chemicals and gangsters Six adults and a child, 7, are killed in a Mexican vacation resort shooting
The red light district in Tijuana is the most public place for cartel wars and the use and sale of fentanyl on the streets.
It is also a popular tourist spot.
Gangs make a fortune from the drugs and sex industry here 24 hours a day, which is why they fight so hard to control or take territory.
The area is constantly guarded by the police, the National Guard and the Mexican Army, who were deployed here last year to try to reduce homicides and fight organized crime.
Image: An injured man is treated by paramedics
We joined the Baja California State Police on one of their patrols through the area.
They told us that the cartels don’t care what fentanyl does to people, they only care about one thing – money.
“They know what they’re doing, they know what they’re producing, they know the problems they’re causing selling drugs, they know people are getting more addicted in this country, they know it’s a problem, but they don’t care, they only care about their own interests,” an officer told me. He asked not to be named.
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The cartels know that the Mexican security services have a large presence in the city, but they mock them anyway, by posting videos on social media platforms such as TikTok, showcasing their weapons, drugs and money.
“A lot of times it’s sending a message to other organisations, sometimes it’s a message to police officers that we can’t touch them, but we’re resisting all these organisations…we’re trying to stop them in all the struggle and they’ve arrested them.”
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Read more: Million dollar streets full of twisted bodies with fentanyl effects ‘Fentanyl steals your friends’: Pills bought on social media are killing kids in classrooms and in their beds
This area of Tijuana is ground zero for the fentanyl trade in Mexico, and the city is the gateway for smuggling drugs and people across the border.
This trade fuels the illegal drug epidemic in the United States, and the street war within Mexico.
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