PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Coahuila — A group of Mexican municipal police officers continue to be held in custody in connection with the kidnapping and extortion of a local man from the border region in this state. The arrest was made following a high-speed chase as the rogue cops tried to escape from state authorities.
Members of the elite strike force known as Fuerza Coahuila recently arrested five police officers from the town of Morelos. The arrest took place after a high-speed chase through the streets of the Coahuila capital of Saltillo.
Information provided to Breitbart Texas by Coahuila law enforcement officials revealed that Morelos police officers Francisco Mendoza, Valentin Rincon, Cirilo Cervantes, Cristian Lopez, Valentin Rincon, and Martin Hernandez are facing kidnapping and extortion charges. The men have an upcoming hearing where a state judge will rule on the merits of the case and to determine if the men will be held or released on bond.
The case began when the victim, a local businessman, had gone to the Coahuila Attorney General’s Office claiming that the local cops had kidnapped him and taken demanded a ransom payment for his release. State investigators asked their counterparts with Fuerza Coahuila to assist them in bringing the police officers into custody so they could question them as part of the case.
Morelos is a small rural community on the northeastern part of Coahuila. Beginning in 2011, the communities near Morelos including Nava and Allende were targeted by members of the Los Zetas cartel for a series of kidnappings and executions. As Breitbart Texas reported earlier this year, in the town of Allende between 2011 to 2013, Los Zetas were able to kidnap, murder, and incinerate more than 300 victims. Authorities still have not publicly revealed how many have gone missing from Coahuila under the Los Zetas reign of Terror–however some local residents claim there are at least 5,000 victims.
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 “J.M. Martinez” from Coahuila and Breitbart Texas’ Ildefonso Ortiz.