MONTERREY, Nuevo Leon – A group of Los Zetas gunmen riding in armored trucks while carrying .50 caliber rifles, machine guns, and explosives chased a squad of Nuevo Leon police officers out of the cartel’s territory. The police briefly entered the border city of Nuevo Laredo in Tamaulipas. State officials are trying to downplay the attack claiming that Los Zetas did not use grenade launchers or RGP’s, despite multiple law enforcement sources confirming the use of explosive devices.

The clash took place early Friday morning along the highway that connects Nuevo Laredo with the Monterrey Metropolitan area. A group of police officers from Nuevo Leon’s Fuerza Civil had been patrolling the highway. When they reached the state line between Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, they briefly crossed north to make a U-turn, Nuevo Leon’s Public Security Secretary Aldo Fasci said during a press conference.

Soon after crossing into Tamaulipas, a convoy of gunmen from the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas riding in armored trucks painted to look like military vehicles rushed at the police officers and began firing at authorities and throwing grenades at them, law enforcement sources revealed to Breitbart Texas. Three police officers sustained injuries with one officer suffering shrapnel wound in the head, another officer suffering a grazing wound also in the head and a third officer being shot in the leg.

The officers tried to flee and called for help requesting the help from other Nuevo Leon state officers as well as their counterparts in Tamaulipas. Before leaving the area, cartel gunmen torched the vehicles. Despite claims made by Fasci, authorities revealed to Breitbart Texas that an explosive device was used to torch the police vehicle. Medical personnel rushed the officers to local hospitals where they are listed as stable.

The attack on the Nuevo Leon cops comes just days after Los Zetas CDN invaded the Tamaulipas border city of Miguel Aleman just south of Roma, Texas, in an attempt to take away control from the Gulf Cartel, Breitbart Texas reported. The invasion set off two days of fierce gun battles where the cartel gunmen used heavily armored trucks known as monsters in the clash.

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 Tony Aranda from Nuevo Leon.