A group of cartel gunmen killed an entire family during an assassination attempt targeting a narco-politician who worked for a rival organization. During the attack, the gunmen killed 6 people including the intended victim’s two children and wife.
The mass killing took place on Sunday afternoon in Veracruz. The victims included two men, a woman, and two children.
Moments later a second clash took place along the highway connecting the city of Veracruz with Jalapa where gunmen fired at a taxi.
In that clash, one man died and the taxi driver sustained gunshot injuries.
The intended target of the attacks was Fernando “El Pino or R-15” Perez Vega — a cartel-connected politician who was a vocal supporter of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and had run for mayor of a small town in the past.
Breitbart Texas obtained a series of photographs from the scene of the attack. The gunmen are believed to have fired close to 100 shots into El Pino’s black pickup even though his young children were inside.
The man known as R-15 had denied being tied to drug cartels but he and his brother Reveriano “El Pelon” Perez, a former town mayor are both identified by authorities as being the leaders of a group known as Pelones. That group has ties to the Sinaloa Cartel and previously had ties to Mexico’s Cartel Jalisco New Generation. Law enforcement sources identify R-15 as the plaza boss for the town of Totonacapan.
The attack is believed to have been carried out by CJNG which has been clashing with various other organizations for control of Veracruz’s shipping ports.
After the mass killing, the governor of Veracruz expressed his outrage on social media. However, the governor has been fiercely criticized in the past for his lack of action in dealing with the escalating violence in that state.
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 their original Spanish. This article was written by “J.A. Espinoza” from Tamaulipas and Jose Luis Lara from Michoacan.