The bloody fighting in recent weeks in Tamaulipas between Los Zetas and an alliance of cartels of Sinaloa and the Gulf has led federal authorities to respond with additional support for local staff.

Organized crime groups fighting for control of lucrative smuggling routes for drugs in Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and other border areas.

Organized crime groups fighting for control of lucrative smuggling routes for drugs in Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and other border areas.

The conflict erupted in March when transnational criminal organizations began to swap murders with multiple victims.

The bodies of the victims usually were accompanied by narcobanners where criminals traded insults. Violence continued in April and May rose.

Macabre murders of cartels in Nuevo Laredo

A series of murders in Nuevo Laredo on May 4 has prompted federal authorities to provide further assistance.

Early in the morning, nine bodies were found hanging from a major bridge. Four of the victims were women. A narcomanta near the bodies said that the murders had been committed by Los Zetas. The victims were members or members of the Gulf cartel and Sinaloa, authorities said.

The banner of Los Zetas left near the bodies blamed the Sinaloa Cartel, a car bomb in Nuevo Laredo, El Norte reported.

Hours after the bodies were found on the bridge, the Gulf cartel and the Sinaloa gave a grim response, fourteen heads were found in three coolers outside the Government Palace of Nuevo Laredo. The bodies of these victims were found on a major street in the heart of the city.

A mocking message El Chapo

A narcomanta apparently was Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, the fugitive capo of the Sinaloa Cartel, was left near the coolers containing the heads.

The banner threatened the mayor of Nuevo Laredo, Benjamin Galvan, public safety officials and state and municipal.

In April, Galvan was quoted as saying that the Sinaloa cartel not operated in Nuevo Laredo. The banner mocked Galvan saying in part, “They want credibility that I am at work here (?)”

After the murders of 4 May, the attorney general’s office (PGR) dispatched a team of prosecutors, forensic experts and investigators to Nuevo Laredo to support state authorities in the investigation.

Prosecutors are in the office of special investigations for organized crime.

“The goal is to work together to accelerate research and find those responsible,” said a spokesman for the PGR.

Slaughter of the Zetas in Cadereyta

Nine days after the discovery of 23 bodies in Nuevo Laredo, 49 bodies were found mutilated in Cadereyta, on Highway 40, which leads to Reynosa, six of the victims were women.

All the victims were decapitated. Since none of them had been shot, many, or all of the victims probably died by beheading, officials said.

A narcomanta near the bodies showed a command of Los Zetas, Millennium reported.

Working Group on high alert

The outbreak of violence has led the Regional Steering Group, consisting of federal security forces and state, to be on high alert.

As the violence unfolds, federal agents were assured state officials that would provide additional assistance.

At a meeting in early May, Alejandro Poire Romero, interior minister, assured the governor of Tamaulipas Egidio Torre Cantu would have the full support of the federal forces “to help state security.”

The federal and state authorities “continue to fight in close cooperation and coordination against criminals responsible for the violence in Nuevo Laredo,” Poire said in a statement.

Federal security forces fighting the drug cartels in other states

An infusion of federal assistance, as soldiers and federal police, has helped quell the violence of organized crime in other states.

In October 2011, for example, thousands of soldiers and federal police were dispatched to Veracruz to help quell the violence of organized crime.

In September 2011, the bodies of 35 people were thrown in one of the main streets on the outskirts of the city of Veracruz.

A narcomanta near the bodies said the victims were members of Los Zetas. The message warned that a similar fate awaited the members of Los Zetas to stay in Veracruz. The banner was signed by a group calling itself Gente Nueva.

The group, also known as New Generation Jalisco Cartel, is affiliated with El Chapo, according to published reports.

The effort, known as Operation Safe Veracruz, helped reduce violence in the state, officials said.

Around the beginning of the operation, launched a similar effort in Guerrero, which sent thousands of soldiers and federal police after the emergence of violence in Acapulco.

In February, state officials said the killings in Acapulco had fallen 52 percent since the arrival of soldiers and federal police.

The current battle between Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel and the forces of El Chapo occurs mostly in Tamaulipas.

However, violence has spread to other areas.

For example, on April 10, the dismembered bodies of five young men were found near an elementary school in Culiacan, an area where El Chapo is strong. A narcomanta signed by Los Zetas, near the bodies, accused El Chapo to be associated with the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA for its acronym in English.

The Sinaloa Cartel is working with other organized crime groups to attack the Zetas in Tamaulipas, according to a recent report by Stratfor Global Intelligence, a private international consulting firm.

The New Generation Jalisco Cartel, which has struggled against the Zetas in Veracruz, has become a well-trained enforcement, capable of dealing with Los Zetas, the report said.

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Readers Comments (1)

1. Dorothy Slattery says:

   June 26, 2012 at 2:53 pm

   Maybe they should just let the gangs kill each other and we just keep them contained w/in a certain area. If they don’t care why should we?

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