The Gulf Cartel implemented a new security measure by forcing taxi drivers to check IDs to find rivals trying to sneak around the border city of Matamoros.
In recent weeks, taxi drivers have been asked to check and photograph the IDs of any passenger who requests their services in key transit areas, such as the highways leading west to Reynosa or southwest to Rio Bravo.
Taxi drivers are careful not to say the reason for the ID checks. The development has caused concern among students at Matamoros Technological University since the campus is located within a zone of concern for Gulf Cartel drivers. Students have been warned to carry their school IDs and a secondary one with their photo. Taxi drivers have been ordered to call in those who do not have an ID.
Breitbart Texas spoke with students and locals say it is an unspoken public fact that the Gulf Cartel controls who enters and leaves the city.
The faction of the Gulf Cartel that controls Matamoros has a long history of clashes with a rivals from Reynosa. The security checks are part of efforts to prevent incursions from the rival border city.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to Mexico City and the 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.