CIUDAD VICTORIA, Tamaulipas — Rival factions of Los Zetas cartel used machine guns and other weapons during a riot-turned-firefight inside a state prison in this city.
As of Tuesday late night, the fighting had killed three Tamaulipas state cops, one inmate, and resulted in six other police injuries. By Wednesday, another police officer was injured and four inmates were killed.
A citizen journalist outside the state prison in Ciudad Victoria recorded the intensity of the firefight as barrages of machine gun fire can be heard coming from within. It remains unclear how Los Zetas were able to get weapons and ample ammunition inside the prison. The video also shows the moment a squad of state cops in tactical gear carrying M-4 rifles enters the facility to assist the other officers battling cartel members inside.
A Tamaulipas law enforcement official revealed to Breitbart Texas that the violence is due to a group of cartel members from Cartel Del Noreste who are being held in the same prison as their rivals, Vieja Escuela Z. As Breitbart Texas has reported for more than a year, the two factions once were part of Los Zetas but have since broken off.
In an effort to prevent a riot, Tamaulipas state authorities raided the prison on Tuesday afternoon–but soon after the inmates attacked. State police officers were met with fully automatic weapons turning a prison riot into a full-scale gun battle that lasted for more than three hours. Mexican military helicopters, soldiers, and federal cops were called to assist.
On Wednesday early morning, the violence reignited with one police officer rushed to a local hospital and four inmates dying at the facility. Tamaulipas state cops again called on federal police officers to rush inside the prison and help them with the ongoing gun battle.
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 and Breitbart Texas’ Ildefonso Ortiz.
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