SALTILLO, Coahuila — Authorities in this border state set their sights on a group of police officers believed to have executed two U.S. tourists and then covered up the crime by claiming the victims were armed drug smugglers.

Initially, members of a metropolitan special response unit known as “GROM” claimed that two men riding in a maroon pickup ran a checkpoint along the highway that connects this state with Zacatecas. As Breitbart Texas initially reported, Coahuila state authorities falsely claimed that the two men ran a checkpoint and then opened fire on police officers, who chased them. In response, police officers opened fire and killed the two alleged gunmen. The two men have since been identified as U.S. tourists. According to Mexico’s Reforma, the victims were identified as Demetrius Atkins and Edgar Valdez Rodriguez, a Mexican national but legal resident in Missouri.

State officials revealed to Breitbart Texas that the theory presented by the cops has not held up to scrutiny and obtained arrest warrants against three members of the GROM. Two of those officers, Ivan Vladimir “El Hermano” Monsivais Martinez and Felix Enrique “La Piraña” Moreno Vasquez were arrested and are named in the ongoing investigation. The two cops remain in custody at a state prison facility in Coahuila.

According to Coahuila law enforcement officials, the tourists were not armed and did not elude the checkpoint. While authorities now believe the rogue police officers executed them in cold blood, a motive remains unclear.

Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican 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 Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by Coahuila’s “J.M. Martinez”.