CIUDAD VICTORIA, Tamaulipas — A group of gunmen entered a graduation party spraying gunfire, murdering four victims and injuring five others–including an 11-year-old girl.
While the Tamaulipas government has not wanted to publicly address the situation, there are indications the multiple homicides are linked to the ongoing cartel war for drug trafficking routes, extortion, and kidnapping in this city–the state capital.
The attack took place at “El Caracol” party hall where authorities pulled up shortly after the gunmen carried out their massacre. Eyewitnesses claimed that a team of shooters arrived in a white Ram pickup and began firing at all of the guests.
When the gunmen tried to flee the area but about a block away, they ran into innocent motorists and shot them. With the driver dead, the SUV crashed into a nearby house.
When state cops arrived at the party hall, they called for every available ambulance due to the high number of casualties. Police agencies from every level of government responded to secure the scene and help the victims. Some died in the moments after the attack. Law enforcement agencies set up a search operation but were not able to locate the gunmen.
Information obtained by Breitbart Texas revealed that the injured victims were an 11-year-old girl, 22-year-old Antonio Chavez Cardenas, 45-year-old Mariel Martina Cardenas Urbina, Karla Vanessa Trujillo Castillo, and 21-year-old Edgar Guadalupe Avalos. All come from the same family and hail from Soto La Marina, Tamaulipas.
An innocent motorist who was driving by the area was gunned down. Breitbart Texas was only able to confirm the identity of two of the victims. One was identified as Ramon Cardenas Sanchez while the other was local attorney Francisco Niño Moreno. The name of the woman nor the name of the innocent bystander were confirmed.
Authorities were able to learn that the massacre took place at the graduation party for Edgar Guadalupe Avalos, who had just completed his courses in criminology and had been working as an intern at the Tamaulipas State Attorney General’s Office.
Shortly after the massacre, messages from fictitious social media accounts on pages that deal with cartel violence and shootouts began posting information about who was responsible for the murders. According to the information on those pages, Zetas Vieja Escuela and the Gulf Cartel took credit because of the money laundering operations carried out by the Cartel Del Noreste (a splinter of Los Zetas), however, the social media message did not specify if the attack was against the family or against the party hall. Other versions point to the gunmen looking to execute a particular individual but it remains unclear if that individual was at the party.
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” from Tamaulipas.
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