Four cartel gunmen died and five law enforcement officials sustained injuries during a fierce weekend clash in the Mexican border city of Matamoros. The shootout comes as the city has seen a spike in cartel-related violence.
The shootout began when gunmen from the Gulf Cartel set up makeshift roadblocks on the city’s west side as they tried to hijack a tractor-trailer, Tamaulipas authorities revealed. State police officers responded to the scene and clashed with the gunmen. Two officers sustained minor injuries and the gunmen managed to escape in SUVs.
The state cops called for backup from military forces who joined the search and even used a navy helicopter for air cover. Military forces managed to track down the convoy of cartel gunmen to the western side of the city near the Puerto Rico neighborhood. There, the forces clashed with the gunmen.
Locals shopping at an open-air market were forced to run and seek cover as the gunmen exchanged fire with the military.
During the shootout, some gunmen managed to run and hide inside a house. There, the gunmen held the residents at gunpoint and stole a vehicle to escape. The Matamoros faction of the Gulf Cartel is the same group behind a massacre in Reynosa this past summer where they killed 15 innocent bystanders. The two main factions of the Gulf Cartel are fighting an internal turf war for smuggling corridors into south Texas.
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” and “Francisco Morales” from Tamaulipas.