Authorities in the Mexican border state of Coahuila found the body of a migrant believed to have drowned while trying to cross the waters of the Rio Grande. Since the start of the year, authorities found the bodies of 25 drowned migrants on both sides of the border.
The incident took place on Wednesday afternoon just north of the rural community of Guerrero, which is just east of the border city of Piedras Negras in Coahuila. Authorities responded to the scene after locals called about a body floating in the water. Once they arrived they found the body of a man partially underwater on the banks of the Rio Grande. Authorities described the victim as being between 25 and 30 years of age and said he is believed to have been a migrant.
The drowning comes just one day after another migrant believed to be between 35 and 45 years old also drowned in the Rio Grande in the Morelos neighborhood in Piedras Negras.
The drowning incidents are the 24th and the 25th of their kind since the start of the year. Law enforcement sources revealed to Breitbart Texas that in the northern part of Coahuila, human smuggling groups have the help of local police and are able to move a large number of migrants through rural communities and dirt roads in order to avoid highway checkpoints set up by Mexico’s military.
The main human smugglers in the region are known only by their nicknames and are feared by locals. The groups are led by a man known as El Venus, a woman known as Doña Irma, a man known as El Gallo, another man known as El Sacerdote, and a local kingpin known as Don Homero. The group operates stash houses in the towns of Guerrero, Nava, and Allende, all rural areas that are connected to the Rio Grande through a maze of dirt roads.
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 “C.E. Herrera” and “J.M. Martinez” from Coahuila.
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