GRAPHIC: Cartel Man Ignites While Stealing Fuel in Mexican Border State

MONTERREY, Nuevo Leon — A group of cartel members stealing fuel from an underground line blew themselves up, setting off a large fire that injured two firefighters and one abandoned thief.

The fiery explosion took place in the rural community of Los Ramones near the Monterrey metropolitan area, information provided to Breitbart Texas by Nuevo Leon rescue personnel revealed. Under the cover of darkness, cartel members tried to tap into the fuel lines used by Mexico’s government-owned oil company to move diesel and gasoline.

While tapping into the line, the cartel members caused an explosion that set of a large blaze. Emergency personnel responded to a call of a nude man with second and third-degree burns to 95 percent of his body, Nuevo Leon emergency personnel said. The man was not near the scene of the fire and appeared to have been left behind.

First responders were battling the blaze outside the city when a second explosion injured two firefighters. Eventually, emergency crews were able to extinguish the flames. A photograph from the scene appears to show a human hand. Law enforcement officials have not officially confirmed nor denied if the remain is human and if it belonged to one of the cartel members.

As Breitbart Texas reported, drug cartels continue to rely on the theft of fuel as one of their main sources of revenue. A Nuevo Leon law enforcement official revealed that cartel members were using a truck with nine containers, each able to hold 1,000 liters or approximately 250 gallons. The source revealed that in some regions, the money from the illegal sale of stolen fuel rivals the income generated by drug trafficking.

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.