Cartel Gunmen, Mexican Army Clash in Border State Capital in Mexico

Mexican military forces killed one cartel gunman and injured three others during a fierce clash in the capital of the border state of Tamaulipas. The clash comes at a time when rival cartels continue to fight for control of the region.

The shootout took place on Sunday early morning in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, where a convoy of cartel gunmen was moving along Adolfo Lopez Mateos Avenue, one of the city’s main roads, and they came across a convoy of Mexican soldiers. Information provided to Breitbart Texas by Mexican authorities revealed that when the gunmen spotted the military forces, they began shooting, setting off a large-scale rolling gun battle that ended near a military complex.

As additional soldiers came out and more authorities responded to the scene, the gunmen began to retreat.

Credit: Breitbart News Foundation / Cartel Chronicles

As they fled the scene, gunmen began deploying dozens of makeshift road spikes that caused some of the military and police vehicles to have tire blowouts. Once the gunmen had left, military forces tended to three wounded gunmen, whom they also placed into custody, while state investigators arrived to document the scene and handle the dead gunman.

The shootout comes at a time when residents in Ciudad Victoria have already been experiencing high levels of violence at the hands of cartel gunmen who have been extorting local businesses, kidnapping businessmen for ransom, and also carrying out forced disappearances where the victims are not heard from again. The Tamaulipas state government has largely turned a blind eye to the cartel violence in the region. Additionally, as Breitbart Texas reported, corruption has spread widely within the Tamaulipas state police apparatus, leading to a large number of officers not only working for criminal organizations, but also addicted to drugs.

Credit: Breitbart News Foundation / Cartel Chronicles