MONTERREY, Nuevo Leon – Two cartel assassins were busted hunting for local rogue drug dealers. One was serving house arrest while the other was out on bond. The gunmen also had orders to perform ambushes on state police while sparing some municipal officers.
Breitbart Texas obtained exclusive access to the court documents and criminal histories tied to the most recent arrests of Pedro Alberto “Pepin” Duque Garza and Luis Miguel “Migue” Salinas Rodriguez, two assassins from the Cartel Del Noreste (CDN) faction of Los Zetas who clashed with state authorities last week in Cadereyta. The incident occurred when the hitmen were hunting for a meth dealer who refused to work for Los Zetas.
A squad of state police with Fuerza Civil were carrying out routine patrols when they spotted the two men wearing military-style clothing. The two gunmen put up a fight in response to the police stop, setting off a brief shootout that ended when they surrendered. Authorities found AR-15s and tactical gear in a Chevrolet Avalanche and a Dodge Neon.
During questioning, the gunmen told authorities they were ordered to hunt rogue meth dealers and attack state police officers. The gunmen reportedly confessed they were told to not attack Cadereyta Municipal Police–a comment that raised red flags among officials in the region.
Court information revealed that at the time of the clash, Duque Garza was ordered into house arrest by a state judge on a drug trafficking charge. It remains unclear how he was able to disable any tracking devices without alerting authorities. In a similar fashion, Salinas Rodriguez was out on bond at the time of the attack. He was previously arrested on carjacking charges, but another state judge allowed him to walk.
Intelligence obtained by Breitbart Texas revealed that Duque Garza, also known as Pepin, initially worked for Los Zetas as a lookout but was promoted to hitman with a salary of $12,000 pesos or $600 USD for killing rival drug dealers amid the CDN’s efforts to control the distribution of meth in Monterrey.
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 Tony Aranda from Nuevo Leon.