Mexican State Cops Seize Guns, SUV After Border City Shootout

MATAMOROS, Tamaulipas – State police officers in Matamoros managed to seize an SUV and several weapons after fighting off an attack from members of Mexico’s Gulf Cartel. That criminal organization recently made headlines for trying to gain favor through a social media campaign where they handed out boxes with food to poor communities in the region.

The shootout took place this week in the eastern part of the border city of Matamoros when a convoy of Tamaulipas state police officers patrolled the city’s streets and a group of Gulf Cartel gunmen attacked them. Law enforcement sources consulted by Breitbart Texas revealed that the target of the attack was a high-ranking state law enforcement official who led the convoy carrying out the patrol operations.

The state police officers fought off the attack and called for backup. Authorities chased the gunmen along Palmares Boulevard until they stopped one of the cartel vehicles. Inside the SUV, authorities seized several weapons. It remains unclear how many gunmen managed to escape. After the shootout, authorities called for an ambulance to treat one the gunmen who is believed to have taken part in the attack.

The gunmen behind the attack are part of the Matamoros faction of the Gulf Cartel. That group has been waging a months-long turf war with their rivals from Reynosa over drug and human smuggling territories and routes into Texas. Most recently the Matamoros faction and their leader Evaristo “Vaquero” Cruz, made headlines for delivering hundreds of boxes with basic food items in some poor areas around Matamoros and Ciudad Victoria.

As Breitbart Texas reported, cartel gunmen took hundreds of photographs of the giveaway and shared them on social media in an attempt to improve their image.

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.A. Espinoza” from Tamaulipas.