PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Coahuila — The recent execution of a suspected smuggler points to rival cartels once again facing-off for control of this border city and its lucrative smuggling routes into Texas. Gunmen stole a vehicle in Texas to carry out a hit in Mexico.
The execution took place this week in the Campo Verde neighborhood of this border city when a team of gunmen shot and killed Jose “El Pitbull” Soto Honorio, a man with a long history as a human smuggler, law enforcement officials revealed to Breitbart Texas.
The victim was riding in a white Dodge Ram when a team of shooters riding in a black Ford pickup drove up and shot him at least four times with 9mm pistols. Authorities recovered the pickup, which was stolen from Eagle Pass, Texas, and crossed into Mexico for the murder. The gunmen remain at large. Soto’s murder comes just one day after a man and a woman were shot down in the same neighborhood in a separate incident that authorities believe to be a crime of passion.
Law enforcement officials in Saltillo revealed to Breitbart Texas that in addition to the vehicle used for the murder, authorities also obtained a message attributed to the Cartel Del Noreste, that warns about upcoming violence in the area. Once part of Los Zetas, both the CDN and the Vieja Escuela Z split and began a fierce war for control of lucrative drug trafficking territories in Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, and Coahuila, Breitbart Texas reported.
In recent months, the Vieja Escuela Z faction joined forces with the Gulf Cartel to take on the CDN. Most recently, the alliance has been blamed for the gory execution where nine bodies were piled up outside of a house in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, just a short drive from Piedras Negras, Breitbart Texas reported. That and other cartel hits in Nuevo Laredo point to an escalation of violence by the Gulf Cartel and the Vieja Escuela in their efforts to take over CDN territory.
The escalating violence in the northern part of Coahuila comes at the same time that Mexico’s Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) appears to be making a push for the southern part of the state as well as the Coahuila capital of Saltillo, Breitbart Texas reported.
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 Coahuila’s “J.M. Martinez” and Breitbart Texas’ Robert Arce.
This article has been updated.