10 die in Tamaulipas state

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A total of ten unidentified individuals were killed in ongoing drug and gang related violence in Tamaulipas since last Friday according to Mexican private and official news sources.

An APRO wire dispatch which appeared  on the website of El Diario de Coahuila news daily, said that seven individuals were executed by criminal gangs, some of the victims of which were said to have been informants for the Mexican Army.

A message was left to the entrance of Ciudad Mante Monday which listed two of the victims, executed by Los Zetas for being informants.  A Mexican Army captain, said by the writers of the message was the informants' handler, was identified as Army Captain Alejandro Martinez Vazquez.

Messages such as the one left in Ciudad Mante, are colloquially known as narcomantas or narcopintas are the most common form of mass communication local drug cartel groups have with the public. 

Two other victims were found over the weekend in Ciudad Victoria, the state capital of Tamaulipas.  One of the victims was dumped near the base of the Mexican 77th Infantry Battalion, 8th Military Zone.  Another message was left at the scene but its contents were not disclosed.

The wire dispatch also mentioned without detailing specifics, three other deaths related to drug trafficking.

Last Saturday, the Tamaulipas state Procuraduria General de Justicia del Estado (PGJE), or attorney general released a statement reporting that three armed suspects were killed in an armed confrontation with a Mexican Army road patrol in Nuevo Laredo.

The firefight took place at around 1600 hrs near the intersection of  Carretera Nacional and Alvaro Obregon in Concordia colony.  The suspects were travelling aboard a Mercury Grand Marquis when the exchange of gunfire took place.

Soldiers secured one rifle and six weapons magazines at the scene.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com