Authorities Kick-off New Search for Missing Cartel Victims Near Texas Border

Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas and Coahuila 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 Coahuila’s “J.M. Martinez” and Breitbart Texas’ Ildefonso Ortiz.

PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Coahuila — Authorities in this border state have kicked off a new effort to find the remains of hundreds of victims who were kidnapped and murdered by the Los Zetas drug cartel.

This week, Coahuila state authorities, the Mexican military, and victim’s families gathered outside of this border city in an area known as Pico de Aguila or Eagle’s Peak to kick off a new search. With the help canines, the search parties began to comb the area in search for human remains.

The effort appears to be the latest move by the government of Coahuila in an effort to bring answers to the hundreds of families that had a loved “disappeared” the Los Zetas cartel.

The search was carried out at the request of groups and organizations made up of citizens who lost their loved ones. The groups received government training in search techniques before the operation was kicked off.

The searches have come following a three-month investigation by Breitbart Texas. The investigation let to an expose on how the government of Coahuila had virtually turned over control of the state to the Los Zetas drug cartel allowing them to operate with complete impunity. That impunity not only gave them unrestricted access to valuable drug distribution lines, but also allowed them to kidnap, torture, and incinerate more than 300 victims from rural communities. Many of those victims that were “disappeared” between 2009 and 2013 included women and children whose only crime was to be related to a person that had previously crossed the cartel.

As part of that expose, Breitbart Texas published photographs of ovens used by the cartel in rural areas to incinerate their victims. The expose also reported how the criminal organization was able to use heavy machinery to destroy the houses of their rivals. One of the most alarming details discovered was that the Los Zetas had managed to take control of the Piedras Negras prison in Coahuila where they used 55 gallon drums to incinerate their victims.

The expose by Breitbart Texas pushed the Coahuila government into action resulting in members of the Los Zetas cartel being singled out and charged with their role in the massacres. The government still has yet to publicly go after prison employees and other state officials that turned a blind eye to the actions of the Los Zetas cartel.