MATAMOROS, Tamaulipas – Top security officials in this border state announced the upcoming purchase of four helicopters to help counter cartel activities in key areas near the U.S.
This week, Tamaulipas Public Security Secretary Augusto Cruz Morales said the helicopters will be patrolling rural communities throughout the state and border cities where cartel activity is the worst. The aircraft are intended to assist officers on the ground and patrol remote areas used by organized crime.
Due to the ongoing cartel clashes in various border cities, at least one chopper will be assigned to the areas between the border cities of Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, and Matamoros. Those cities and the rural communities surrounding them are seeing fierce cartel violence without enough intervention by law enforcement.
Breitbart Texas recently reported on an attack by the Gulf Cartel against a farming family immediately south of Reynosa that was returning from a religious celebration. Seven individuals–mostly children–were shot. That attack followed a series of threats, kidnappings, and arson attacks by the cartel, which eventually forced several families to leave their farms.
In a similar fashion, the border city of Nuevo Laredo is seeing a steady stream of violence as the Cartel Del Noreste (CDN) faction of Los Zetas engages authorities in fierce shootouts. The cartel uses convoys of armored vehicles with mounted machine guns. The CDN-Los Zetas recently used dirt roads to make their way from Nuevo Laredo to the border state of Coahuila, where they attacked a small town’s city hall and killed 23.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.