RIO BRAVO, Tamaulipas — Three gunmen with Mexico’s Gulf Cartel died this week after attacking a convoy of Mexican authorities who were patrolling this border city. The clash set off a fierce gun battle from which cartel gunmen in various vehicles managed to escape.
The initial shootout took place this week in the area between the border cities of Rio Bravo and Matamoros. Hours later, other shootouts took place in neighboring areas. The fighting killed three gunmen and left two injured police officers, law enforcement sources revealed to Breitbart Texas.
The initial attack took place when security forces were carrying out routine surveillance patrols along the highways and rural areas surrounding Rio Bravo and the Texas border. While patrolling the areas near the town of Anahuac, the gunmen attacked the police convoy setting off a fierce gun battle. Authorities requested help from military and police forces. The gunmen threw road spikes as part of a strategy to slow down security forces.
For more than an hour, cartel gunmen and security forces carried out shootouts and high-speed chases forcing traffic to come to a halt as tractor trailers and passenger busses avoided the scene of the shootouts.
In the following days, convoys of gunmen with the letters RS on their vehicles set up roadblocks throughout the region in other to inspect passing cars. The violence is linked to an ongoing battle for control by rival Gulf Cartel groups who have been fighting for territorial control. Since May the fighting between the two factions las led to more than 180 murders.
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 “A.C. Del Angel and “J.A. Espinoza” from Tamaulipas.