Cartel Executes Mexican Border State Prisons Chief

CIUDAD VICTORIA, Tamaulipas — A team of cartel gunmen executed the man responsible for trying to clean up the prisons in this border state and injured several others. The victim received prior threats from the drug cartels that operate near Texas.

Felipe Javier Tellez Ramirez, the coordinator of the state prisons in Tamaulipas, also known as CEDES, was gunned down at a popular restaurant in Ciudad Victoria. The gunmen also shot a prison warden, a secretary, and Tellez’s bodyguard, information released to Breitbart Texas revealed.

The victim received multiple gunshot wounds and was left in a pool of blood at the parking lot of Las Viandas, a restaurant along the highway connecting this city with Matamoros. The attack took place a few yards from the headquarters of the Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office. The gunmen traveled in a white Chevrolet Suburban and escaped in the same vehicle.

Tellez Ramirez took the helm of the state prisons in July and was responsible for various operations in Ciudad Victoria and Reynosa–where authorities found underground tunnels, bunkers, and weapons that disrupted cartel activities inside and outside of the facilities. The late state official also issued warrants for the closing of various cartel-linked casinos and oversaw the removal and reassignment of dirty prison guards.

Before joining the government of Tamaulipas, Tellez worked as a police officer with Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office and was a mayor in Puebla. The official received threats from the Gulf Cartel and their allies, Zetas Vieja Escuela, before his murder.

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 “Francisco Morales”, “M.A. Navarro” and “J.A. Espinoza” from Tamaulipas.