SALTILLO, Coahuila — Despite efforts by state authorities to keep various cartels from fighting over the region, violent executions continue.
State officials increased operations and patrols in recent weeks after a banner from Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) was hung in the city, Breitbart Texas reported. The message accused high-ranking state officials of allowing some cartels to operate in the region and threatened that a new group would move to forcefully replace them.
Despite the constant assurances by officials regarding improved public safety, the CJNG was behind at least seven separate, high-profile murders throughout the state. The escalation forced authorities to increasingly publicize their attendance at various security meetings.
Most recently, officials discovered a man bound and gagged before his body was wrapped in a blanket and left on the side of the road in the rural community of Arteaga, not far from Saltillo. The victim was described as a man between 20 and 25 years of age who was wrapped in a green blanket wearing blue shoes. The victim did not have any identifying documents when forensic investigators searched his body. Authorities claim the blanket indicates a cartel-connected execution.
Law enforcement officials who spoke with Breitbart Texas on the condition of anonymity claim that recent murders point to the CJNG–whose members are trying to take over Saltillo before making a broader push for the border cities of Piedras Negras and Ciudad Acuña.
State authorities increased patrols and are performing intelligence operations to seize drug shipments and weapons caches. Police also set up checkpoints along various highways.
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 “J.M. Martinez” from Coahuila.