The Human Rights Committee in Nuevo Laredo is claiming that Mexican authorities are kidnapping and executing innocent civilians before staging scenes to look like shootouts with Los Zetas gunmen. The group is the same organization that regularly condemns military and police forces, but keeps silent on cartel violence.

The Nuevo Laredo Human Rights Commission is now claiming that a special forces group of the Tamaulipas State Police kidnapped innocent men from their homes, murdered them, and staged the scene of a shootout to appear as a victory against organized crime. Several national news outlets in Mexico repeated the accusations. The shootout in question took place last week when Tamaulipas authorities clashed with gunmen from the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas, Breitbart Texas reported at the time.

Mexico’s Televisa claimed that Tamaulipas state cops used a black armored truck to stage the scene and had the vehicle towed from another location.

While the two vehicles appear quite similar, a comparison from the scene of the actual shootout revealed that the truck seized by authorities had armor plating on the top of the cab to mount a weapon.

Additionally, citizen journalists uncovered a series of photographs originally shared on social media by the cartel gunmen in matching tactical clothing.

One of the photographs provided to Breitbart Texas depicted one of the eight dead gunmen, Luis “El Wicho Bachas” Hernandez, dressed in CDN-Zetas uniform with an AR-15.

Led by Reymundo Ramos Vasquez, the Nuevo Laredo Human Rights Committee has been successful in pressuring the military to withdraw from the border city by using cartel-sponsored protests and manufacturing false claims of official abuses. The human rights group and Los Zetas previously hyped protests at international bridges to draw media and the United Nations’ attention. In one case, Mexican authorities found several banners from a protest inside a cartel stash house among weapons and drugs.

Ramos Vasquez is named in a Mexican federal criminal proceeding against a Los Zetas lieutenant named Ramiro “El Ramas” Perez Moreno. In the complaint numbered AP/PGR/SEIDO/VEITA/073/2015, Perez Moreno claimed Ramos Vasquez is an employee of Los Zetas who is tasked with organizing protests and creating outrage against military and police forces. In his statement, El Ramas also claimed Ramos Vasquez would hide cartel members in his organization’s office, since authorities would not be able to enter the premises.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.