Local college students ran for cover as cartel gunmen clashed with Tamaulipas state police forces near a university campus in the Mexican border city of Matamoros.
The conflict erupted on Wednesday afternoon on the western side of Matamoros, near the highway connecting it to Reynosa, Tamaulipas. At the scene, a group of cartel gunmen in various vehicles, including an armored truck, clashed with state police forces in a short but fierce firefight.
A video shared on social media captured the audio of the gunfire as students in a nearby university campus (UANE) sought cover during the gunbattle.
Official government information revealed that four gunmen died, and authorities arrested three other gunmen. Authorities also seized one armored vehicle and several weapons. After the clash, state investigators shut down the highway between Reynosa and Matamoros for approximately two hours while they documented the crime scene and cleaned up the area.
The shootout comes just two days after new Matamoros Mayor Jose Alberto Granados took office. It remains unclear if Granados will be outspoken about the cartel activity and violence in his city or if he will be complicit in silencing any negative information like prior Mayor Mario “La Borrega” Lopez.
As Breitbart Texas reported, during the Lopez administration, the Gulf Cartel had key members in top positions. One of those individuals, Pedro “El Polaris” Hernandez Quiroga, was a convicted member of the Gulf Cartel who became one of the top EMS officials in Matamoros during the Lopez administration after his release from prison. El Polaris and others came under scrutiny after the Gulf Cartel used City of Matamoros ambulances to move four U.S. citizens who had been kidnapped in 2023.
In that case, two of the victims died, but it was revealed that the Gulf Cartel had moved them in ambulances and taken them to a local clinic. The only arrests in the case came when the Gulf Cartel surrendered five gunmen and placed a posterboard saying sorry after the kidnapping drew international attention and much political pressure.
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.