PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Coahuila — A cartel gunman died during a shootout with authorities who were working to rescue a group of migrants kidnapped from this border city.



The recent gun battle took place in the rural community of Guerrero, a region about 25 miles away from Eagle Pass, Texas. The shootout was connected to an ongoing investigation into the kidnapping of migrants by organized crime.

As a border city, Piedras Negras was historically used by Los Zetas and now by their descendants, the Cartel Del Noreste, to move drugs and illegal immigrants into Texas.

In recent months, a cell of gunmen kidnapped migrants looking for a way to Eagle Pass and eventually to other U.S. cities for ransom, law enforcement sources revealed to Breitbart Texas. The gunmen threatened their victims to extort funds from their loved ones. State authorities were carrying out a series of investigations after learning that a cartel group kidnapped a group of migrants from the downtown area of Piedras Negras.

Authorities learned of a stash house in the rural community of Guerrero. When the officers arrived, gunmen began firing at the lawmen–forcing them to fight off the attack. Authorities killed one of the gunmen and detained others.

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 “J.M.” Martinez from Coahuila.