Fresno-Hanford car dealer reportedly slain in beating in Baja California

A well-known central San Joaquin Valley auto dealer is reportedly the victim of a homicide in the Mexican resort of Cabo San Lucas, according to reports.

Jose Arredondo was the reported owner of Fresno Buick-GMC , Hanford Hyundai and the Family Motors Group in Bakersfield, Santa Maria and Lompoc.

Cabo San Lucas is a popular tourist venue in Baja California.

According to the Mexican website 20minunitos.com, Arredondo was found dead by police in a condominium. The Associated Press reported that Arredondo died in a beating.

The Bakersfield Californian reported that Arredondo, 60, came to the United States from the Mexican state of Michoacán as a child with nothing and became a multimillionaire.

Increasing violence in Baja California has marred the reputation of the region as a quiet, sparsely-populated vacation paradise. The rise in murders has drawn the attention of publications as distant as the Irish Times, which in February reported that the city of Los Cabos had a higher per capita homicide rate than any other city in the world, increasing by 500 per cent from the previous year to 365 killings.

Baja California is also the epicenter of a conflict between Sinaloa, Jalisco New Generation, and Tijuana drug cartels.

This story was originally published July 17, 2019 at 9:18 AM.