A San Diego police sergeant has warned underage Irish J-1 students not to venture across the Mexican border for nights out

Irish students, some as young as 18-years, are venturing across the border to the city of Tijuana where they are being targeted by criminals. Over 500 homicides occurred in the city in 2011 alone, making it the fifth most deadly year in Tijuana’s crime history. Sgt JJ Salinas, a member of the border crime suppression team in southern San Diego said that muggings and kidnappings are common, especially when revelers leave busy nightclubs in the early hours of the morning. “Sometimes people are naive in that they don’t recognize the high level of violence that’s occurring right now in Mexico,” he said. He added: “There have been incidents where people were taken to an ATM and forced to take out all their money.” According to the US Bureau of Diplomatic Security’s website, visitors traveling in border areas have been victims of armed robberies, sexual assaults, auto thefts, and kidnappings.