Mexicali Police has fined over 4,000 residents this year for environmental violations, city authorities said.

Of those fines close to 700 were due to water wasting, Mexicali Police Chief Pedro Ariel Mendívil told La Crónica newspaper.

According to the chief environmental violations will be enforced more heavily after six vehicles were assigned to the Ecological Patrol Unit.

Chief Mendívil said enforcement was suspended after the City witnessed several vehicles burned by alleged criminals.

Once the city stopped seeing these incidents, code enforcement has returned to normal. Fines can go up to close to $600.