Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas and Coahuila to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by Coahuila’s “JM Martinez”.
PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Coahuila — Mexican judges from this border state, located have once again released a group of police officers who had been arrested last year on charges of having worked with Los Zetas.
The release of the narco-police officers came at the hands of Coahuila’s Superior Magistrate Tribunal which ruled that nine former cops form the town of Villa Union were free from criminal charges. The judges ordered them to be released after determining they had been illegally detained and subjected to moral and physical torture.
Initially, Coahuila State authorities arrested nine police officers, including the police chief from the town of Villa Union last June. At the time of their arrest, the police officers were formally charged with “aiding criminal activity” a crime that has become commonly known as hawking or halconeo referring to the cartel lookouts that help criminal organizations. The role that the police officers are believed to have played within the criminal organization other than acting as lookout was not made public. At the time of the arrest, authorities had claimed that they had found cash envelopes that were said to come form the bi-weekly payments that the cops received from Los Zetas.
Following the release of those police officers, Piedras Negras went through days of terror as the Zetas cartel kidnapped, tortured and beheaded four separate individuals who are believed to have helped authorities. The remains of the victims were spread around town, Breitbart Texas reported.
It remains unclear if the release of the former police officers from Villa Union will lead to more violence in the already tense region of Coahuila.
Piedras Negras is located just south of the Texas border town of Eagle Pass.