Six people were gunned down by suspected cartel gunmen in the northern border state of Sonora Sunday following a horse racing event. The victims were killed on a remote highway while pulling a trailer.

An unsanctioned community horse racing event turned deadly Sunday on the outskirts of Empalme when six male victims traveling in a Chevrolet with a trailer were intercepted by suspected cartel gunmen, according to local reports. The six apparently participated in a racing event involving high stakes and neighboring ranches. Unofficial horse racing occurs throughout Mexico, usually without violence. The attack is believed to be connected to a dispute over a large wager lost by persons connected to one of the cartel-aligned gangs in the region, according to Breitbart Texas law enforcement sources.

The attack occurred at approximately 7pm on the “4” road outside rural El Triunfo Santa Rosa on Highway– 85.

Empalme is adjacent to the popular tourist port of Guaymas/San Carlos Bay, 250 miles south of the Arizona border. The six unidentified victims were later located inside or near the truck, cell phone video released on social media shows. Two of the deceased are believed to be a father and son in a final embrace.

Elements of the Empalme municipal police, Sonora State Police, and the Mexican Navy responded to the scene and the investigation was turned over to the state attorney general’s office.

Sonora is seeing a spike in cartel-related violence. The border state marked the seventeenth police officer killed in 2019 with five dead in the Guaymas/Empalme area in 2019 alone. Guaymas/Empalme has a joint population of less than 200,000.

Unsanctioned, high-stakes horse racing, cockfighting, and other events often pit Mexican ranches against each other and sometimes lead to violence. The spectacles can draw large crowds with food carts and usually occur on Sundays.

Robert Arce is a retired Phoenix Police detective with extensive experience working Mexican organized crime and street gangs. Arce has worked in the Balkans, Iraq, Haiti, and recently completed a three-year assignment in Monterrey, Mexico, working out of the Consulate for the United States Department of State, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Program, where he was the Regional Program Manager for Northeast Mexico (Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Durango, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas.) You can follow him on Twitter. He can be reached at robertrarce@gmail.com