BROWNSVILLE, Texas — Unknown gunmen dumped the bodies of two men executed cartel-style near a local public park. The men were shot in the head, their arms and legs were tied, and their faces covered with t-shirts as hoods.
The double murder took place Wednesday afternoon near a populated area, outside the city limits called Cameron Park. According to The Brownsville Herald, the victims remain unidentified, however, a justice of the peace and the Cameron County Sheriff Eric Garza both indicated the murders are likely tied to organized crime.
Garza told local news outlets that the bodies had not been on the scene for long and appear to have been relocated from the actual homicide location. Authorities initially responded to a call of two men possibly sleeping on the side of the road. The Mexican Consulate is in touch with investigating authorities.
Brownsville is north of the border from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, the birthplace of the Gulf Cartel. The region has a long history of being one of the busiest drug smuggling corridors. While local politicians claim the region is safe using cherry-picked crime stats, there have been numerous cases of cartel-connected cross border violence in the past.
Earlier this month, federal authorities re-arrested Osiel Cardenas Guillen Jr., the son of the jailed kingpin by the same name who was the supreme leader of the Gulf Cartel. The younger Cardenas was living in Brownsville under supervised release after pulling a gun at a bar and claiming to be a U.S. federal agent in 2018. Since his release from detention, Cardenas was involved in violent assaults at bars and incidents of road rage, where he would allegedly use his family name to threaten motorists.
In August, a group of men shot a 23-year-old man on the 5400 block of Boca Chica Boulevard, causing him to crash his vehicle. The victim died at the scene. Months later, federal authorities were able to apprehend three men tied to the murder, which is linked to drug trafficking and organized crime, local news outlets reported at the time.
In previous years, several Gulf Cartel top lieutenants have been arrested in Cameron County, including Brownsville.
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.