A group of cartel gunmen left a headless body and a severed head in two separate locations as a message to their rivals as they continue a fierce turf war in the capital of the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas. The latest chapter of violence comes at a time when the cartel-connected governor continues to claim that public safety has improved during his term.
The gruesome scene took place this weekend when shop owners on the north side of Ciudad Victoria called 911 after finding a headless body outside of their business.
A few minutes later, authorities received a second call about a severed head found outside of a local school in the Sagitario neighborhood on the city’s northeast side. At the scene, authorities found the head and a severed hand inside a black trash bag next to a posterboard with a threatening message. When authorities examined the head, they discovered that the gunmen had glued various baggies of drugs to its hair.
Breitbart News Foundation / Cartel Chronicles
Tamaulipas state investigators spoke with Breitbart Texas and revealed that the murder is attributed to an ongoing turf war between the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel. The CDN-Los Zetas initially controlled the region; however, in recent months, the Gulf Cartel has been making a significant push to gain control of the state’s central region.
In recent months, Ciudad Victoria has seen a dramatic rise in “missing person” cases. The issue is largely lost in bureaucracy, as authorities in Tamaulipas use vague classifications to keep crime statistics low artificially. While many of the “missing person” cases are in fact cartel abductions, officials do not classify them as forced abduction or kidnapping cases. While cartels continue to operate with relative impunity within Tamaulipas, government officials continuously claim that crime is decreasing and push false statistics.
The state is currently controlled by Americo Villarreal, a politician who has been the target of much criticism for having had fuel smuggling money funneled into his campaign and, as Breitbart Texas reported, for having had the Gulf Cartel threaten locals into voting for him.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart News Foundation 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 News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and their original Spanish. This article was written by “Francisco Morales” from Tamaulipas.
The Breitbart News Foundation is an independent non-profit. All content created by it is available for licensing without charge to any legitimate publisher with a large audience and that agrees to the licensing terms. For licensing information, please contact: [email protected]
The Breitbart News Foundation is an independent non-profit. All content created by it is available for licensing without charge to any legitimate publisher with a large audience and that agrees to the licensing terms. For licensing information, please contact us.
