Five cartel kidnappers and one Mexican soldier died during a fierce gun battle in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, just south from the Texas city of Laredo. The soldiers managed to rescue a woman that Los Zetas had apparently kidnapped. The shootout took place over the weekend when soldiers with the Mexican military set up an operation to rescue a kidnapping victim, information provided to Breitbart Texas by the Tamaulipas government revealed.
The soldiers had been tracking a 2007 Lincoln Navigator and ended up catching up with it on at the intersection of Tamaulipas and February 5th streets.
The soldiers managed to block off the cartel gunmen who actually crashed into three parked vehicle before starting a fierce firefight. During the gun battle five gunmen and one soldier ended up receiving a fatal gunshot injury from which he later died. Mexican authorities identified the gunmen only as males being between the ages of 20 and 30-years-old.
The woman who had been kidnapped ended up being rushed to a local hospital for unspecified injuries and is listed in serious but stable condition. After her rescue, the woman told authorities that she had been kidnapped since Wednesday and was unaware of where the gunmen were taking her
The city of Nuevo Laredo has long been considered a stronghold of Los Zetas drug cartel. The criminal organization has set itself apart from other cartels for their ruthless forms of torture and executions as well as for their willingness to carry out executions on the United States.
As reported by Breitbart Texas, in June a group of Los Zetas cartel gunmen from Nuevo Laredo shot down a U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter flying on the American side of the Rio Grande. The helicopter had been trying to assist agents stop a drug smuggling attempt by the criminal organization.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas you can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.