PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Coahuila – A team of cartel gunmen attacked a squad of Coahuila state police officers in a rural community near the Texas border. No injuries or deaths were reported officially and the gunmen managed to escape through a series of dirt roads despite a series of manhunts by authorities.

The shootouts took place this week near the rural community of Hidalgo, not far from the state line with Nuevo Leon, information released by the Coahuila government revealed. The gunmen traveled in a gray pickup and came across a convoy of Coahuila state police officers. The gunmen began shooting at the police officers and tried to escape — setting off a rolling gun battle. The gunmen managed to flee through a series of dirt roads. Authorities called for help from military and federal police forces who then executed a series of operations along dirt roads and even called for a helicopter in an attempt to locate the gunmen.

Law enforcement sources revealed to Breitbart News through unofficial channels that several gunmen arrived at local hospitals with injuries that appear to be related to a shootout. While the government’s statement only claimed that the shootout took place with one team of gunmen riding in one SUV, it is believed that the gunmen took part in an earlier clash with rivals in other rural communities. According to information revealed by Jose Luis Pliego Corona, the Coahuila Secretary of State, before the clash with law enforcement, convoys of gunmen clashed near the rural communities of Barroteran and La Florida.

In recent weeks, the border cities of Piedras Negras and Ciudad Acuna, just south of the Texas cities of Eagle Pass and Del Rio, have witnessed a series of gruesome murders where cartel gunmen left severed heads with threatening messages on behalf of the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas, Breitbart News reported.

Editor’s Note: Breitbart News 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.