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Amid a wave of violence that has residents along the U.S.-Mexico border in fear, Mexican soldiers killed five gunmen – all members of the Cartel del Noreste (CDN), a faction of Los Zetas – at a makeshift drug trafficking camp four miles south of the Texas border.
The shootout happened days after the Northeast Cartel men clashed with members of the Gulf Cartel on the outskirts of the municipality of Miguel Aleman in Tamaulipas state. They then dumped the bodies of nine people along a highway.
The Mexican soldiers were patrolling the area when they saw vehicle tracks not usually left by locals in a rural sector south of Miguel Aleman. Twenty soldiers in three trucks followed the tracks, and approached what appeared to be an abandoned house.
The gunmen inside began shooting and then ran into the brush to continue the confrontation, which ended with five men dead. However, it is unclear how many shooters from the criminal organization escaped.
Investigators from the state of Tamaulipas, who went to the scene to document the evidence, identified the men as members of the Northeast Cartel, a faction of Los Zetas, an organization fighting the Gulf Cartel for control of drug and migrant smuggling corridors.
Authorities also found radio equipment, weapons and logos identifying the CDN.
