A Mexican border state cop allegedly got high on meth before going onto the rooftop of a hotel and firing into the parking lot. Government officials have since tried to cover up and suppress the case to avoid having to address the ongoing security crisis in Tamaulipas, where cartels continue to operate with impunity.
The incident took place on Friday afternoon, when newly hired officer Enrique Salas Reyes picked up his police-issued rifle and went up to the top floor of the hotel leased to the police force in the town of Padilla, Tamaulipas. Once on the top floor, Salas Reyes began shooting at the police vehicles in the parking lot. During the shooting, fellow officers tried to talk him into surrendering and lowering the rifle, but Salas Reyes refused and continued firing.
In order to stop the attack, another officer fired back, striking him in the midsection. Salas Reyes did not go down. The injury gave other officers the time to wrestle him down, take the rifle, and handcuff him.
After the shooting, authorities rushed Salas Reyes to a local hospital, where he was treated and then released back to authorities. Officials turned him over to the state police internal affairs division.
Law enforcement sources revealed that Salas Reyes had consumed crystal meth prior to the shooting. He, like many other officers in the Tamaulipas state police forces, had a drug habit, but still had been able to obtain his current position. Breitbart Texas reported on the widespread use of crystal meth and other drugs within the Tamaulipas police forces, including a 2020 shooting where one officer killed his partner and an innocent bystander while allegedly hallucinating under the effects of the drug.
In the aftermath of the shooting, the Tamaulipas government ordered a media blackout in an attempt to keep information about the shooting from going public and further damaging the state government. Tamaulipas is already the topic of numerous allegations of corruption and ties to drug cartels.
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.
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