GRAPHIC: Los Zetas Cartel War — More Severed Heads, Threatening Banners

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 “M.A. Navarro” from Ciudad Victoria.

CIUDAD VICTORIA, Tamaulipas — Severed heads and threatening banners have become a common sight in this city as two rival factions of the Los Zetas drug cartel continue their brutal war for control. The complete impunity that the cartel members have been able to operate with has spread terror among regular citizens who are continually finding severed heads and dismembered bodies in public places.

As Breitbart Texas previously reported, two rival factions, Grupo Bravo or Vieja Escuela and the Cartel del Noreste (CDN), both of the Los Zetas cartel have spent more than seven months fighting for control of the state capital of Tamaulipas. Rather than fighting out in the streets in large scale gun battles, the two rival factions have resorted to drive by shootings, public executions, kidnappings, and beheadings that have placed average citizens in or near the violence.

Late last week, a group of gunmen pulled up to a bar in the downtown area and began firing. The gunmen killed one patron while injuring a second one. Military and police forces rushed to the area and tried to search for the gunmen but were unsuccessful.

During the weekend, authorities responded to the Solidaridad neighborhood in connection to an abandoned ice chest.

The everyday items have become popular for the wrong reasons as cartel gunmen continually use them to leave severed human heads inside. When authorities arrived, they found an orange poster board with a cartel message. Inside the ice chest, authorities found two severed heads.

Soon after, authorities responded to a kindergarten in the Liberal neighborhood where gunmen had left a large banner threatening their rivals. The two messages were both signed by Grupo Bravo taunting the CDN.

According to the information on the banners, the CDN had received help form their allies in the border city of Nuevo Laredo but Grupo Bravo claims that the severed heads belonged to two of the gunmen from Nuevo Laredo.