Mexican Soldiers Sentenced for Assisting Los Zetas Cartel in Border State

PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Coahuila — A Mexican military tribunal sentenced eight soldiers convicted of working for Los Zetas. The soldiers helped the ruthless cartel by leaking information and providing operational assistance.

The recent ruling by the tribunal did away with an appeal filed by the soldiers looking to escape their 26-year prison sentences for working with Los Zetas up until their arrest in March 2011. The soldiers were previously assigned to a military detachment in Saltillo, Coahuila.

The soldiers claimed they were beaten and tortured by investigators after their arrests and therefore colored their confessions. 

According to statements made by their defense attorney, Ramiro Ramirez, to Vanguardia, the trial was tainted from the outset when Mexico’s Army allowed investigators to obtain confessions by torture. The attorney claimed there was no evidence linking the soldiers with Los Zetas outside of their admissions.

At the time of the soldiers’ collaboration with Los Zetas, the organization was in the process of separating from their former employer, the Gulf Cartel. As Breitbart Texas reported, Los Zetas managed to take over Coahuila thanks to corrupt officials who gave the criminal organization almost absolute control. As part of their reign or terror from 2011 to 2013, Los Zetas were able to kidnap, murder, and incinerate at least 300 victims from the northern rural communities. At least 150 of those were incinerated inside the state prison in Piedras Negras.

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.