3 die as Mexican security forces conduct raids in Tamaulipas

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Three unidentified armed suspects were killed in an apparent intergang gunfight in Ciudad Mier municipality, as Mexican security forces in the form of Mexican Army and naval infantry units seized weapons munitions and drugs in several encounters and raids in northern Tamaulipas municipalities over the weekend, according to official Mexican news accounts.

According to a news release posted on the state government's website, a Policia Militar unit had been dispatched Friday at around 0300 hrs to a location near a funeral home near the intersection of Libramiento 5 de Junio and  Bulevar El Huizache, in Mezquital colony on the basis pf an anonymous citizen's complaint, where the military unit found two armed suspects killed by gunfire.  A third body was found inside the funeral home five hours later.

Mexican naval infantry units conducted several raids and engaged in a brief firefight with armed suspects in northern Tamaulipas municipalities.

In Reynosa Sunday night a marine unit was dispatched via a citizen's complaint to Las Seybas colony where marines found a tunnel with two vehicles parked inside.  The tunnel itself was 60 meters long, by six meters wide by three meters high.  Vehicles found inside include one Ford Super Duty pickup truck and one Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck.  Marines also found 11 weapons magazines for rifles, 1,121 rounds of ammunition and three radios.

In Rio Bravo municipality marines seized a number of contraband including  11 rifles, one pistol, one grenade launcher, 293 weapons magazines, 1,167 rounds of ammunition, two grenades and packages of marijuana cocaine and crystal methamphetamine.    One Toyota Tacoma and one Ford Lobo (F-150) pickup truck along with military uniforms and four radios were seized at the location as well.

Also on Sunday at night, between San Fernando and Matamoros municipalities, a  marine unit exchanged gunfire with armed suspects, forcing the suspects to abandon their vehicles and flee the scene.

According to the government's account, armed suspects were traveling aboard two vans when the occupants opened fire on the marine road patrol.

Earlier in the day closer to Matamoros, a marine road patrol conducted a traffic stop, detaining one suspect who was driving a pickup truck.

The detainee was identified as Sergio Alejandro Lopez Muñoz, reportedly a member of an unidentified criminal group.  Inside the truck marines also found one AR-15 rifle, one weapons magazine, 300 rounds of ammunition and one kilogram of marijuana.

Meanwhile, Mexican Army units conducted three raids in Reynosa and Cruillas municipalities netting 14 suspects and a number of contraband.

In Reynosa municipality a Mexican Army unit was dispatched to a residencein Rancho Grande colony because a citizen filed a complaint about armed suspects in the area.

Soldiers detained nine unidentified suspects total including six Mexican nationals, two from Guatemala and one from Nicaragua.  Contraband seized included two rifles, three pistols, 151 weapons magazines, 694 rounds of ammunition and two vehicles.

A second Mexican Army road patrol stopped a vehicles and detained three unidentified suspects.  The government report said the suspects were in then area working a lookouts for  a local criminal group.   Soldiers seized two radios.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com

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Nearly a month after exodus, Mier refugee shelter closes

By JARED TAYLOR, The Monitor


Officials have closed a refugee shelter set up in Miguel Alemán, Tamps., as displaced residents of nearby Ciudad Mier made their way back to their homes amid a protective surge of military force.

Mier, once a town of about 6,500 across the border from western Starr County, gained infamy last month when several hundred residents vacated, seeking shelter at the Lions Club in Miguel Alemán.

The exodus came after members of the Zetas, the Gulf Cartel’s allies-turned-rival, reportedly ordered residents out of Mier under the threat of execution.

“It was a very difficult situation,” Mayor Servando Lopez Moreno of Miguel Alemán said in a telephone interview.

The shelter closed Friday after remaining open for nearly a month, Lopez said.

The mass departure gave Ciudad Mier— designated a “Pueblo Mágico” by Mexico’s Tourism Ministry for its significant historical and cultural value — international notoriety as an overnight ghost town. But residents from Mier have said most of the townsfolk able to cross into the U.S. did so months ago, while others with relatives in other cities had already fled as well.

Mexico defense officials deployed 3,000 soldiers, marines and federal police to Mier and other northern Tamaulipas border towns west of Reynosa.

“There’s a lot of security now,” Lopez said.

He said a meeting with local, state and federal officials is set for this week regarding security in Mexico border towns.

“There are many soldiers here now, but we don’t know if it is permanent or transient,” the mayor said. “We know they are here, but we don’t know if they will stay.”

No one at Mier’s City Hall answered telephone calls Friday.

Refugees who spent nearly a month in Miguel Alemán received an outpouring of support from residents in Starr County, as well as from churches from across the Rio Grande Valley.

At least seven Valley Baptist churches — and others in Texas — pooled resources to collect items taken across to the Lions Club shelter.

The provisions included food, blankets, drinking water and diapers, said Jerry Johnson, interim director of the Rio Grande Valley Baptist Association. He noted that the relief effort was headed by Tomas Cantu, pastor at Primera Iglesia Bautista in Roma. Cantu declined to comment for this story.

“He has really brought it to our attention to the needs out there,” Johnson said. “Whatever is out there, we try to meet the needs of folks.”

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Zetas Capture Mexican Soldiers, Cd. Mier

By: Farrah Fazal
CIUDAD MIER, MEXICO - A new Mexican troop buildup in Mier has todo with five Mexican Army soldiers captured by the Zetas.

This is according to Gary J. Hale, the former Chief of intelligence for the Drug Enforcement Agency in Houston.

He says the Zetas didn't just capture those soldiers on Monday but they also killed four more soldiers. He says the Mexican military is going into Mier tonight partly as payback.

"For the Zetas to go to the point of attacking a military unit tells you they are dead set for that territory," said Hale.

The gun battles are more fiery and deadly in the little Mexican town of Mier just feet from the U.S. border. The Zetas are fighting the Gulf Cartel and the military is fighting them both.

"Four soldiers were killed and others were taken captive," he says.

Gary Hale says he is getting that information from sources on the ground in Mier.

He spent more than three decades in the intelligence community. He now owns a think tank called Grupo Sarvant in Houston.

Hale says three reasons will make the battle for Mier even more deadly in the coming days. The area is strategic because it's the gateway to the drug highway from Monterrey.

"Monterrey is a critical juncture you can access Eagle Pass, Brownsville, Matamoros, Reynosa, McAllen. You can access all of those citires," says Hale.

The cartels know the Rio Grande near Mier is their friend. Hale says neither the Gulf Cartel or the Zetas could end up controlling Mier or area all along the border from Falcon Dam to Camargo.

"All of that territory belonged to Sinaloa. It was upsurped by a long war in Nuevo Laredo," he says. "At the end of the day when the smoke clears, the Sinaloa Cartel could dominate the territory."

Hale says the Gulf Cartel fought for the Mier area of the border from 2003 to 2007, but this year the Gulf needed Sinaloa's help to fight off the Zetas. He says we may know as early as next week if the Zetas can hold off two enemies from the territory they are determined to control.

Hale is working on a report he'll release this weekend that will show exactly how the Gulf Cartel could take back the territory that once belonged to the Sinaloa Cartel and what it would mean for the bloody war along that border right now.

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