Authorities Say 151 Inmates Escaped Mexico Prison

A total of 151 inmates escaped from a prison in the northeastern Mexican city of Nuevo Laredo, just across the border from Laredo, Texas, officials said Saturday.

The first head count on Friday’s prison break indicated that 148 inmates had escaped. That figure was subsequently lowered to 141, but the Public Safety Secretariat in Tamaulipas, where Nuevo Laredo is located, announced the final tally.

Army soldiers and Federal Police officers were on alert following the escape but no captures have been reported thus far, while the whereabouts of prison warden Efrain Hernandez Llamas, who did not report to work on Friday, remain unknown.

Friday’s prison break brings to 352 the number of inmates who have escaped Tamaulipas penitentiaries thus far this year. The tally as of Sept. 10 was 201, including 86 men who busted out of a prison in Reynosa, neighboring McAllen, Texas.

Tamaulipas prison service chief Horacio Sepulveda was dismissed after this latest breakout.

The Gulf coast state of Tamaulipas has been battered this year by a turf war between the Gulf drug cartel and former allies Los Zetas, a conflict that has left hundreds dead.

Massive prison breaks are a tactic employed by drug mobs in response to the killings and arrests of their gunmen.

Mexican Security Forces Hunt 151 Escaped Prisoners

Federal police and army troops were on alert Friday in northeastern Mexico after 151 inmates escaped from a prison in Nuevo Laredo, just across the border from Laredo, Texas.

An official source originally put the number of escapees at 148, but Tamaulipas state Public Safety Secretary Antonio Garza Garcia said a careful head count determined that 151 of the more than 1,200 inmates were missing.

The federal government issued a statement “energetically” condemning the escape and calling the Tamaulipas state government ineffectual.

“The absence of effective measures of monitoring and security on the part of the local authorities is deplorable ... (and) has generated frequent escapes from the penitentiaries, which place the security of the communities at risk,” the statement said.

The inmates fled the Nuevo Laredo institution late Thursday night through a service exit, Garza Garcia told a press conference, adding that 58 of the escapees were men serving sentences for drug and racketeering offenses.

Both warden Efrain Hernandez Llamas – who did not report for work Friday and remains missing – and Tamaulipas prison service chief Horacio Sepulveda have been fired, Garza Garcia said.

The breakout in Nuevo Laredo brings to 342 the number of people who have escaped this year from prisons in Tamaulipas. The tally as of Sept. 10 was 201, including 86 men who busted out of a prison in Reynosa, neighboring McAllen, Texas.

The Gulf coast state of Tamaulipas has been battered this year by a turf war between the Gulf drug cartel and former allies Los Zetas, a conflict that has left hundreds dead.