Suspected Drug Smuggler Dies in Shootout near Texas Border

Coahuila Police
Breitbart Texas / Cartel Chronicles

PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Coahuila — Authorities continue to look into a recent drug smuggling attempt where a man turned his handgun against law enforcement and died during a shootout.

Late last week, authorities were conducting a routine patrol in the rural community known as Centinela when they spotted Luis Emanuel  Valdez Barron, who had apparently been guarding multiple bundles of marijuana. The man fired a .40 caliber pistol at law enforcement who were forced to return fire.

Valdez died as a result of his injuries. At the scene, authorities found multiple marijuana bricks weighing more than 200 pounds that Valdez had apparently been guarding. Authorities also recovered a .40 caliber handgun with five rounds. Preliminary information points to the gun jamming during the battle.

The area where Valdez had been guarding the drug bundles is near a dirt road that leads from the rural community to the banks of the Rio Grande. Local news outlets have identified Valdez as the grandson of a nightwatchman who was beaten to death during a house robbery gone wrong in Piedras Negras last month.

Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas 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 Piedras Negras, Coahuila. 

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