CIUDAD VICTORIA, Tamaulipas — The out-of-control violence in this city continues to spread, targeting bystanders as well. While cartel gunmen usually engage each other or Mexican authorities, average citizens continue to be the targets of kidnapping and extortion.
A surveillance video of a recent kidnapping at a local furniture store helps paint a glimpse of a common occurrence in Victoria. The victim has been identified as 74-year-old Arturo Dominguez Mendoza, a local businessman who, according to authorities, has no known ties to organized crime.
The kidnapping took place on Sunday shortly after 10 a.m. at the Colchorama furniture store, Mexican law enforcement officials confirmed to Breitbart Texas. In the video, three young men carrying handguns wearing hoodies can be seen walking up to the sales counter. Two of the attackers drag the elderly man by the hand as a female customer looks frozen in apparent fear. The third man walks toward the back of the store before leaving with the rest. As the gunmen leave, the terrified female customer flees. Unconfirmed information points to the victim being released later that day. It remains unclear if a ransom was paid.
The video provides a view into what has become a regular occurrence in this city, where cartel members are able to terrorize average citizens with impunity. The wave of terror comes after for more than a year of rival Los Zetas factions’ fighting for control of the city and lucrative drug trafficking routes, Breitbart Texas has reported.
The clashes have led to almost daily kidnappings, drive-by shootings, gun battles, and executions. The levels of horror in this city have reached the point where, as Breitbart Texas reported, Zetas gunmen recorded themselves severing the heads of victims for terrorism purposes.
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 “M.A. Navarro” from Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas.