Mexican Border Prison Riot Kills, Injures Multiple Inmates

MONTERREY, Nuevo Leon — Violence sparked in the Topo Chico prison when inmates tied to the Los Zetas cartel began to fight for control inside again. The riot set off a large police deployment aimed at securing the compound that killed one inmate and left at least six others with serious injuries.

The bloody riot was reported minutes before Nuevo León Governor Jaime Rodriguez Calderon presented his First State of the State Address before the Nuevo Leon Congress. Due to the raging violence at the prison, the state’s top security officials were forced to leave the governor’s event to respond to the riot.

Dozens of relatives rushed to the Topo Chico prison to find any available information about the well-being of their loved ones inside. Since the new governor of Nuevo Leon took office, Topo Chico has seen four similar incidents.

The violence inside the prison comes just days after the capture of multiple members of the Cartel Del Noreste (CDN), a faction of the Los Zetas cartel. This year, the cartel has seen a spike in violence tied to infighting among rival factions. The majority of Topo Chico’s inmates have ties to Los Zetas.

As Breitbart Texas reported in February, 49 inmates died during a riot between rival factions of Los Zetas in the same prison.

A law enforcement official consulted by Breitbart Texas was not able to determine if the timing of the event could be considered a message from organized crime against authorities–or if it could also be in response to the recent raids targeting the cartel in Nuevo León.

Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Nuevo León 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 Tony Aranda from Monterrey, Nuevo León.