Crime and Safety
Travel alerts and latest news on crime along with valubale tips to avoid becoming a crime victim in Baja Mexico
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Personal Safety in Baja
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Personal Safety in Baja
With the recent topics on criminal activity and the most recent murder accounting. Perhaps a thread around safety is pertinent. Maybe even the inclusion of some personal experiences that impressed upon one’s self about how to approach travel, camping and living in Baja?
I would start off with this offer: When I am asked what to look for in camping vehicles (in Baja as well as just in general) I usually make two points to keep in mind mandatory. 1) is the need for water. Water capacity will dictate how long you can stay anywhere you are. If a water source is not available then your ability to store water becomes primary. Although our large type A RV keeps us from some of the more remote locations… the 70 gallons we carry keeps us where we are much longer than most. 2) is the idea that if you should need to evacuate your location ‘on the fly’, do you really want to have to exit a tent, trailer, etc., to gain access to your drivers seat?
In the 70’s while camping at K38’s surf point with dozens of other surfers, the cops would usually make a night time visit and surfers were dealing away stereos, wet-suits, camping gear, for infractions such as pot. It was always a bonus to wake up in my VW bus and peer out to see the cops at the camp of someone else and I all I had to do was move into the drivers seat and bail-out.
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88 Replies
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Great topic – thanks for posting this. Partly based on my previous experience years ago of forgetting to take my gun out of my truck, I always go through whatever we are driving before we leave for Baja, looking for anything I wouldn’t want found at a military check point or police stop. I have added the routine into my pre-trip mechanical check, making sure I have coolant, belts, etc. Doing so a few trips back I found some 9mm ammo that had fallen under the back seat and later that day our truck did get checked out thoroughly at a military check point before the toll road east out of Tijuana.
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We follow the same routine and one time I found some pot my cousin left there. That could have gotten interesting if found in a car search.
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Oh, for sure! A good friend smokes in my truck as his wife doesn’t want it in their home or cars and I have to constantly vacuum out my rig and use air freshner so my old lady doesn’t get on my case. 😁😁😁
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So when we think of the subject of criminal activity and personal security while enjoying Baja, how many of us have this in mind?
A true story…
I met my third and fourth wife (go ahead ask) by way of our group of friends, who gathered together in OB (Ocean Beach) San Diego, at a certain friends driveway on weekend nights. A year out of my second divorce, I was living in my 1976 RV (this was 1995), parking it in the OB beach parking lot during the day (while I went to work) and a nearby store parking lot at night (while I slept).
I was on a mission to save up the funds to leave for a year of traveling Central America.
One of the things I found attractive about her was that as a nurse, she was dreaming of joining ‘Doctors Without Borders’ in her personal quest to visit and serve the underprivileged souls of distant lands; something I had done since working in Tijuana orphanages, with my church youth group as a fifteen-year-old. Oh, and she liked margaritas.
She knew of my future plans as we socialized amongst all of the others those late nights and as we started to ‘hang-out’ together, I shared my experiences of down south. She had never been across the border and I started to drop those ‘seed’ words of commitment saying such things as, “Maybe we’ll have to make a run-down Baja to get you in the groove”. Of course I was looking for her reaction to see if she was buying the ‘maybe we’re more than just friends’ thing.
She indicated she was on board and I lay in my RV that night thinking of how I just put my travel plans in question. Those plans got shelved when we moved into a house together in OB at the end of our first summer of doing the relationship dance.
The beginning of our first new year together, we packed up my 1971 VW bus with the usual Baja camping gear on top and for good measure, packed up her fifteen-year-old son and my seventeen-year-old son as well. Her son had been living with his dad out of state, whereas my son was living with his stepmom (who raised him as my second wife) while finishing his last year of high school. My son and I had a rough sixteenth year of his life and he chose to live somewhere else. This “run down Baja” was an opportunity for a regrouping camp trip for he and I, returning to the many times we had camped in Baja during his life.
The four of us got to know each other during the three day drive down the peninsula and set up camp in an arroyo about 83 kilometers out of San Jose on the east cape. From the many times I had brought the family down to this site, we knew some of the other campers that made it an annual winter retreat, camped in the arroyo. For two weeks we fished, snorkeled, explored San Jose, turned tortillas into chips and guacamole, bathed in the ocean and spent late nights around a campfire.
My son knew the coastline of this area since he had camped here many times with me. The boys were free to explore the beach and the arroyo up into the desert behind us, while mom and I got to sneak in those afternoon ‘naps’.
Of course, the day came when we were destined to return to the mundane life up north. The trip north would be a repeat of the same pattern we had traveled many times before. An overnighter in La Paz to cleanup, an overnighter in Guerrero Negro and then a run for home in OB.
Being the early riser that I am, the bus and campsite were packed up by the time the boys crawled out of their tent as the morning heat started to set in. I gave each of them a medium sized garbage bag to put their dirty clothes in and instructed them to pack the tent up. As usual I had opened a tarp over the top of the bus and packed the larger camp items up on top of that tarp. I waited up there while the boys started to toss up the items that remained to be stored and covered for the trip home.
Sleeping bags, camp chairs, tent, the items they had in their personal control all came flying up to me as I packed them away. Then came the first garbage bag full of dirty clothes, then came my son’s backpack. I tossed the backpack down to my son and instructed him to keep it for the stay in the hotel and to toss up his garbage bag of dirty clothes, that no one needed access to. His backpack came flying up as he told me that his dirty clothes were in the backpack.
I asked him where his clean clothes are (usually in the backpack) and he informed me they were in the garbage bag. I asked him, “Are you going to carry a garbage bag with your clean clothes into the hotel?” He replied yes.
Not wanting to lose the healing in our relationship he and I had gained getting past those recent teen years, I decided to not make an issue of this, and I put his backpack on top as the last item upside, and folded the tarp over the contents on the roof of the bus over the bundle, and tied it securely to the rack it sat in.
It was Super Bowl Sunday when we walked into our hotel room in La Paz and the boys were not interested in hanging out for several hours while we watched the game. They took off to the Malecon, with instructions to meet us out front of the hotel at the appointed dinner hour. With the boys gone we took a quick ‘nap’ and the game was on.
We had all the fixin’s for drinks in the bus and I went down to the street to retrieve such from it. Sliding open the side door I noticed the tarp was askew and I climbed up to the floor of the bus to reach up and resecure it. It wasn’t the type of askew that the wind would create and it looked like someone had opened a small portion to access whatever they could reach from standing on the sidewalk. That would have been only my son’s ‘dirty clothes’ backpack, which was still there and I reclosed the small opening and retied the rope tiedown.
The game ended, the sun was setting, we exited the hotel and found the boys waiting for us on the Malecon. We directed the boys towards one of the restaurants a short walk down on the beach side. We exchanged looks of suspicion as we strolled, acknowledging the way adults do, that something was up. The boys were much more engaging and animated than usual, joking and smiling along the way.
At the restaurant we placed our orders for what would be unexpectedly huge plates of fish with all the side offerings that usually comprise a delectable imbibing. The boys picked at their plates for a few moments and sat back declaring it was just too much. They asked to be excused, and wanting a chance to speak alone, we allowed them to meet us back at the hotel room.
Our conclusion was that the boys had found someone to sell them, or perhaps someone to buy for them, a bottle of booze and we were seeing the effects of the content. Knowing we still had two days with them in a VW bus we decided to let this ride, to be addressed when we got home.
We crossed the border in Tecate with a trip to secondary and a walk-around sniffing by a Border Patrol dog. Down the mountain grade and the familiar superhighway to the coast through east county San Diego, we arrived out in front of our home safe and sound.
The boys quickly carried the content of the bus onto the ocean view deck and then asked if they could walk down into OB before dinner time. I was pleased with their cooperation and was ready to be rid of them for a while after 11 hours in a VW coffin with them.
We took advantage of the solitude for a quick ‘nap’.
One son returned the next day to his stepmom not far away, the other son was destined to be with us for another month until flying home to his father’s abode. As that time grew nearer for his departure his mother grew more melancholy over having to say goodbye to him. But with a week to go until his departure, we both were looking forward to having our ‘new love’ lives back to ourselves and we knew more adventures south of the border were already in the planning stage.
“Hello, my little brother!, how have you been? Are you recuperated from your trip down south?”. My sister in Florida was on the phone. We talked every couple of weeks usually but I hadn’t spoke to her in a month with this call.
“Hey sis, we had a great time and I was really happy to have some time with the teen monster and survive! Just another awesome trip to Baja! How’s things going with you guys and the kids?”.
“Well, we’re doing fine, but I’m calling because I need to discuss something with you. The next time you take your son to Mexico, make sure you search him”.
I wasn’t sure what my sister was driving at, but I assured her that I always inform whomever I am travelling with that drugs or paraphernalia or contraband would not be tolerated by me. I had sat the boys down and told them to not bring anything with them that was illegal. I told them to do whatever they needed to do with it now and to not bring anything into my car.
“What are you telling me this for sis?”.
“Well the boys found a brick on the beach while you were camping and they brought it back with them”.
Now my sister was as straight as an arrow as a person can be. Her and her husband had sailed the South Pacific for several years. She was at one time the personal executive secretary to Jonas Salk at the Salk Institute in San Diego and her husband is a trained scientist.
“A brick sis? Are you talking about pot? Sis that’s over two pounds of marijuana and is pretty large, how did they get it back?”.
“In your son’s backpack”.
‘Drift-weed’ is not that uncommon on the shores of Baja. It is often the result of a dumping of smugglers boats in transit when discovered by authorities. The salt water will usually render a portion unusable, but a good amount may still be salvageable although sometimes tainted with a salty mold. Personally I would have nothing to do with such in any area of Mexico as not only is there the chance of being caught, but there might be others looking for what they expected to be their delivery, let loose in local waters.
A series of images instantly flashed through my mind. The ‘dirty laundry’ incident, the disheveled opening of the tarp in La Paz, the access to the backpack, the boys animated actions on the Malecon, the quick departure for OB after arriving home. THE DOG SEARCH OF MY BUS AT THE BORDER!
“How did you come by this information Sis?”.
“I called my nephew to see how he was doing at his step-moms house and he told me”.
My son had never been good at hiding his shenanigans in life and often boasted of them, even to me. It was a great part of the problems that we had between us… that sharing with his dad of things I would never think of sharing with my father. It also led to the discipline he eventually revolted against.
I was boiling mad. I envisioned a Mexican roadside stop and the discovery of a kilo on top of my van. They don’t have juvenile halls in Baja and they aren’t interested in teen kids. I would have had to come up with the funds or perhaps been thrown in jail. And… I have had friends who’s girlfriend and one who’s wife had to pay the price for stupid infractions such as this (go ahead ask).
I thought of a discovery at the US border and the loss of my bus and possibly my passport, something I couldn’t live without, as well as a prison sentence most got at that time.
I felt stupid for trusting my son, with his recent choices in life, on a trip to a foreign country with me.
“Sis, I have to go”.
This was some years ago and I have gotten over the emotions associated with this. I chose to compose this without using the parties names as I thought to do so would serve no good purpose now. I just share this as a note to alert the reader to the least suspected harm that could come to you in Baja, might be right in your own home.
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Holy crap, a BRICK?!?!? That could have gotten you a trafficking charge, I would have completely blown my top!
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My son would be on restriction until he was 30 for pulling a stunt like that. I thought @paranewbi showed some super human restraint. Kudos to you amigo.
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My husband always insist on wearing money belt underneath with most of our cash and a couple debit cards in case we ever get robbed. We have never been robbed until now, thank God. But one time in Tecate my husband missed a stop sign and we were immediately stopped by a traffic cop who wanted 200 dollars. My husband opened his wallet to show he have only 25 dollars and so the cop take that and let us go. Now he also keep copies of our identification in there, just in case.
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I would suggest keeping your current drivers license in there as well and carry your older, expired license to show an officer if stopped here in Mexico.
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@JuanSoler But won’t an officer reject an expired drivers license?
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They don’t care if your license is expired, at least not here in San Quintin where half of the people driving don’t even have a DL and probably half of those who do are carrying licenses that expired in the last 3 years. 😆
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Got to look into this… Already use to the feel of my ‘inside the belt’ concealed carry holster. Might just give me that ‘feels like home’ sense I haven’t quite acquired camping in Baja 🙂
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That’s a really good idea. I hate using credit or debit cards in Mexico and that’s a much better way to carry cash.
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I hate using credit cards in general.
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I would often use one of those when frequently traveling abroad decades ago and they would actually be quite practical for travelers down here. Great suggestion.
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Yes! We carry one and keep most of our cash and credit cards tucked inside wherever we travel these days. Never have been robbed in all these years when on vacation, fortunately.
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As we like to remote camp a lot when in Baja, the wife is always worried about being robbed so we started bringing along our 2 large dogs with us in addition to a couple of cans of bear spray. Never did have to use the spray but last year on a beach south of Gonzaga a car drove into our campsite around midnight and 2 guys got out but they quickly got back in and drove off when our dogs made it clear they were not welcome.
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We only camp if we bring our dog with us. He’s a great night watchman and loves our Baja trips.
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I have thought about purchasing a flare gun which I was told are legal in Mexico. Anybody here know for sure?
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Technically, you should be pulling a boat behind you and it should be stored inside of the boat. The way to get around that is to say you keep a boat moored in Mexico and you are taking it down to keep onboard your boat and they will let it go.
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Or if it gets noticed on your way back home, just say it was not working correctly and you are taking it back for repair.
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Flare gun? Hadn’t thought of that. Checking on Amazon they aren’t expensive and keeping it in the bag makes look legit.
https://www.amazon.com/ORION-572-Alert-Plus-Kit/dp/B00GLL2W7G/
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That’s pretty cool and has to be real effective
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Make sure it’s not loaded and I would keep the charges separate.
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Yep, a friend told me about the flare gun he had for protection… but he did have a RIB. Now that we have a RIB I may get one as it would be legit.
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@paranewbi forgive my ignorance but what is a “RIB”???
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Not ignorance! RIB is an acronym for Rubber Inflatable Boat. We bought one about a year ago and took it down to Santispac (Conception Bay) because I got to old to paddle my wife around in our double kayak (I lovingly refer to her as my ‘Fishing Whore’ because she loves to fish all the time!). Ii use to refer to them generally as ‘Zodiacs’ because that’s all I knew them as.
I have been surfing for nearly 60 years now and to walk down the beach with a new board is one thing… to shred on it gets you way more respect.
I took our RIB out of the RV and set it up on the beach @ Santispac for the first time. Everything was shiny brand new including the 9.9 Honda outboard. The other RIB owners (about 30 of ’em and mostly Canadians) watched with great interest. A couple even came over to oogle my new toy. I had watched a ton of YouTube videos on how to set up and operate it so learned some of the lingo about RIB’s there and sounded half intelligent while conversing with them.
Of course being my first boat, I knew nothing of how to approach departing and arriving in shallow water. I knew they knew I was a RIB kook at my first launching. They were gracious though and over the coarse of time their wisdom helped me immensely and after two months camping there I almost looked like I knew what I was doing!
I appreciate your inquiry as to the acronym AmandaE! Hopefully you won’t have to be humiliated at 67 years of age as ‘That American guy with the new RIB’ was.
Rick
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This reply was modified 2 years, 4 months ago by paranewbi.
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Thanks Rick, I didn’t know what a RIB was either. Love your inflatable setup.
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Of course and thanks for the explanation, it’s really nice to post in a forum where everybody has been so helpful. We have talked a few times about how awesome it would be to have a boat and that RIB of yours looks like something we could manage. Hauling a big boat on a trailer down the narrow highway is something out of our league.
Would you mind sharing what that would cost us?
Note to admin – sorry if off topic, delete if not appropriate
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Just start a new thread on your question and tag @paranewbi to start off the conversation
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Thank you, I will!
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This reply was modified 2 years, 4 months ago by
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Wow, that would really get their attention! Would probably work great when camping in a remote area and prowlers show up in the middle of the night. Fire one of those babies over their heads and I couldn’t imagine they would stick around long enough to see how many more shots you had left. Hopefully they are relatively easy and quick to reload in the dark.
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Wow! Good thing you gave some direction there… I was thinking more along the lines of firing the Flare AT them ;(
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If they moved in on me, believe me I would – without hesitation. But if they only pull up near our campsite in the middle of the night on public property and still a distance away, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they might just be love birds looking for a romantic beach.
As long as they are not advancing on me and at a safe distance, I will do them the favor of lighting up the sky immediately over their heads to help them find their car keys so they can look for another beach to make out at. However, if I should feel compelled to fire a second shot it will most definitely be aimed center mass.
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Speaking of lighting up the sky… We have several of these on board when camping. You can set them on sensor and they will come on when someone breaks the plane. We will wire them up and hang them on a palapa or up high on the RV. They really light up a large area and will let you know if anyone is checking out your camp.
While in Santispac the beginning of this year, someone came through the camp at night and rifled several camp sites for stoves, propane containers and even an outboard on a RIB. They are light enough to carry away.
The thief was wearing cowboy boots with a distinguishing ‘H’ imprint on the heel. It was easy to tell if he was around your stuff because of the sand imprint. He walked several feet out in front of our place about the distance where he would have been lit up by our solar sensor lights.
Our boat was well lit up and of course our outboard is well secured with locks to the transom so he stayed away from our stuff. I have heard stories of thief’s having portable sawzalls and just cutting the transom to get a locked boat motor though.
These are available on Amazon
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Those lights are perfect! Out here where we live it’s a remote location and completely off-grid where we keep our place well lit at night with our Dobermans having free access all around the house inside of the rock wall around the property. We occasionally get some prospecting perps cruising by late at night who slow down to evaluate the potential (at least it appears that way) but quickly drive off when they hear the chorus of large dogs growling and barking. The rock wall perimeter is my first line of defense – the lights and dogs the second, locked and bolted doors on the house the third and me inside holding the last thing they will ever see alive.
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What is the practical range when firing one horizontally vs vertically?
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Not sure but I believe that the one displayed is a 12 gauge and I am positive they sell more powerful models so I would assume that the range would be affected by what size flare gun you are using, correct?
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I tend to duck when someone fires a bottle-rocket (fire cracker) in my direction… not really concerned with how far away I am. But if your aiming a flare at someone who is worthy of being fired at… their probably in range.
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Flare guns are super good to give thieves a warning from a distance but best to save your available rounds until they are close in to to make sure you hit them. The accuracy really decreases outside of about 50 feet or so. Also they break up in flight and beware of ricochets.
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Gosh dangit… I know I shouldn’t be watching anything to do with firearms. Just ordered one. You never know when a crazy pumpkin is gonna come along….
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Don’t get drunk in public places around people you don’t know.
Drive only during daylight hours.
Stop and count to five at stop signs.
If any family members smoke pot, vacuum out car thoroughly before driving in Mexico.
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I would add don’t try to impress by flashing a lot of cash, expensive new cars,clothes, or jewelry
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Leave your pot and other illegal substances at home. If you can’t survive w/o them for a weekend then you’re better off staying home. If you insist on taking them anyway and are traveling with other friends and family, you have a moral obligation to inform them of your decision before crossing the border into Mexico.
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In relation to that I would add – don’t accept requests for rideshares from people you don’t know and don’t agree to carry sealed packages or drive vehicles for people you don’t know across the border.
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It’s a really bad feeling being broke down late in the day in the middle of nowhere with no cell service. You feel vulnerable and with no options and most of the time, those situations can be avoided or at least easily resolved. Check the integrity of your vehicle before traveling including tires, belts, brakes, fluids and carry extra coolant and belts along with some radiator hose fix kits and tools. That will help you avoid or at least easily get through most of the more common mechanical problems you might encounter while traveling down in Mexico. Also make sure you have your jack, lug nut wrench and carry some foam tire repair and a good air compressor.
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Great advice and yet probably few take the time to follow it.
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I second the idea of bringing a big dog or two. Not only do they scare away thieves they also work on most cops at shake-down traffic stops as well as get you waved through military checkpoints.
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I second that
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Our two aren’t small but they are not super big either yet they certainly do growl, bare their teeth and bark when someone unfamiliar to them comes near us when camping. Never really have been tested so far with anything seriously bad and hope we never have to find out.
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Get enough pesos for your trip when crossing the border and always pay in pesos. Don’t use dollars to pay here in Mexico to make sure they cant rip you off on the exchange
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Probably one of the more difficult things to deal with around the money thing is ATM’s at the bank and understanding the fees when shown on the screen. It always looks like a good exchange rate but then the screen shows some amount that looks like a high percentage of your withdrawal. Then I get home and that doesn’t seem to be the amount deducted from my account.
Sometimes it seems like the ATM at the entry to the store in San Felipe gives a better rate if you can catch it when it’s working.
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Good point – when an ATM offers you an exchange rate, ALWAYS decline what they offer you which is typically about 1 peso off the rate you will get when you refuse to accept their offer.
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Mexican banks are all ripoffs and I hate them. Well, banks everywhere are probably all bad but the banks here in Mexico are the worst! That exchange rate game they try to commit fraud with tourists at ATM cash machines is criminal.
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Banks today mostly only lend money to people who really don’t need more money.
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Usually under pressure in the banks ATM area by the line of eyes waiting for a gringo to navigate the process of obtaining funds… if you decline the initial offering, is it not the case that you are kicked out and forced to start over? Do all ATM’s offer a second exchange rate?
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That’s the real scam in how they set that up, leading you to believe you will cancel the withdrawal if you decline. What happens if you decline the “offered” rate is the ATM will simply convert the funds at your bank’s established rate for that day which is usually about 5% better on average and sometimes even more.
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That’s what we do too.
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Yes, I have seen that in recent trips and the rate is much too low.
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Dang… Am I the only idiot? This group has already increased my wealth!
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I’m with you @paranewbi – I always accepted the displayed exchange as I thought I had no choice. We both start saving some money today.
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Seriously? Now I feel really stupid for never trying to see what would happen if I did.
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I got taken by that scam a few times until I did the math and realized it didn’t look right. So I tried to see what would happen if I declined and very glad that I did. This would make a great post on its own for people to see and learn.
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What’s going on along the border right now is a good reminder that you always have to keep your guard up, you never know when you might be driving through an area and something like this gets sparked and blows up.
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With all those local / federal police and military patrols it only takes one shot to really escalate things. Good advice to avoid the area for now.
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I can’t believe that some people are still insisting that this was all over hyped and over blown? Did they go to Tijuana last weekend? Did they see all the police and military driving through the city? I hear people say the mayor of Tijuana wanted to order a curfew but was told to shut up.
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I feel relatively safe driving through the area but do avoid it when peaks of violence are happening. Just use common sense like you do when out and driving anywhere else in the world today. Life is becoming more and more violent in general everywhere and you just need to be watchful wherever you go, in Mexico, Canada or the states.
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Yes, that is exactly what I do. There are neighborhoods of Los Angeles that I detest driving through but when I have to I say a prayer that my car don’t break down and nothing will happen to me.
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One thing I figured out is that you do need to take an active role in keeping yourself safe and you just can’t depend on tourism websites telling you everything is OK. Not saying that it’s as bad down in Mexico as some in the US press try to make us believe but you need to invest some effort into finding out what’s going on and a plan to keep yourself, your family and your property safe. Here at home as well as down in Mexico.
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For sure, we had one of our cars stolen and our house broken into in just the last 3 years. And where we live is considered more of a rural community, so go figure. Crime is getting worse everywhere now.
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Where did that happen? In the states or in Mexico?
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Outside of Fresno, California
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Never leave anything inside your vehicle of value but if you have no other alternative, make your best effort to hide it out of view. That is good advice for anywhere today, not just Mexico.
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True dat. My wife left her iPad on her back seat at Walmart and when she got back to her car 15 minutes later the rear down window was smashed and it was gone. That was a mile from our house. Now days when we travel to Mexico we started taking our old Expedition that needs a new paint job and have never have had a single issue when we park it in Tijuana, Rosarito or Ensenada.
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One thing we do as a safety plan in general wherever we go is to make sure that we don’t use saved passwords for any banking apps like online banking, PayPal or any money transfer apps on our phones. That makes sure that if we should ever lose our phones (or if they are stolen) they can’t be used to easily transfer money out of our accounts. To make sure our email app can’t be used to reset the password on an account, we don’t save that password either.
I know it’s a bit of a hassle but it gives us a lot of peace of mind.
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That’s why I have an 8 digit pin code to open my phone.
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We were talking about camping in Baja at work and the topic of personal safety came up. Found out that the sister-in-law of a co-worker who lives in the midwest went camping a few weeks ago with her family and after dark they were approached by two drunks who at some point got overly aggressive where they felt threatened. Her husband then fired at them with a pistol shooting rounds of pepper spray which quickly left them both debilitated and unable to see or even walk.
I hadn’t even hear of such a device but found one on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/SABRE-Pepper-Spray-Launcher-Defense/dp/B0864YX9J9/
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That’s RAD! Although I wonder if they are legal in Mexico?
And I am a bit curious, what did they do after they pepper sprayed the drunks? Call the police? Pickup camp and leave? Nothing??? I can’t believe they just went on like nothing happened?
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Sorry – I should have finished the story. The drunks were left inhabilitated for several minutes and eventually stumbled away back to their campsite. In the meantime, they quickly picked up camp and left. As far as the legality of carrying one in Baja, checking on older websites they say no pepper spray allowed but I found several new websites stating the laws recently changed and pepper spray is now permitted. Not sure if that would apply to these pistols however.
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I think the pepper balls work better than the pepper cartridges.
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I watched the video with the pepper balls and they looked similar to the paint balls we use in our paintball guns. So I looked it up and they are exactly the same size – .68 caliber! That means that a paint ball gun can be used to fire the pepper balls with zero modifications and paintball guns are completely legal in Mexico. I would just suggest you buy a bag of paint balls to carry with you in case you get stopped and asked but load it with pepper balls when you are camping in a remote area.
This package comes with all the gear to make you look legit and comes with a large capacity CO2 cannister as well as a 200 Round Capacity Paintball Loader. This particular model is capable of firing 15 balls per second, meaning you could completely neutralize a crew of several bad guys in a couple of seconds!
https://amazon.com/Maddog-Tippmann-Titanium-Paintball-Starter/dp/B01AB3G9SM/
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I just dug a bit deeper and found they make some PVC covered metal balls that are also paintball size caliber. They are considered nonlethal but pack a very powerful punch, probably like rubber bullets to some degree.
https://www.amazon.com/Balls-Coating-Paintballs-Defense-paintballs/dp/B083MWL55V/
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I have a paintball gun packed somewhere in my garage. I have to check this out.
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