REYNOSA, Tamaulipas — Casualties continue to mount as rival factions of organized crime groups continue fighting for control of this border city. The list continues to build as authorities fail in their attempts to stop them.

In the most recent rash of violent cases, seven suspected Gulf Cartel gunmen died this week in a shootout against Mexican Army soldiers near Las Torres Avenue on the city’s Eastside. The suspected gunmen were five men and two women who fought against the military forces. A day after that shootout, a team of gunmen executed two suspected street-level dealers in the Las Flores neighborhood. The community is located in one of the city’s central areas.

The violent activities that continue to take place throughout the city are part of an internal rift between rival factions of the Gulf Cartel who have been fighting for control of the region. As Breitbart Texas has been reporting since May, the two groups began their fight for control of Reynosa and its drug trafficking routes. The fierce fights are linked to large-scale gun battles, between rival cartel gunmen as well as with military forces who are attempting to stop them. Kidnappings, executions, and shootouts led to 346 murders since the resurgence of violence began. To date, neither of the two groups have managed to assert dominance over the other.

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 “A.C. Del Angel” from Tamaulipas.