PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Coahuila — State authorities arrested two former police officers suspected of pushing drugs and carrying out other duties for the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas.

Authorities with the Coahuila state government confirmed to Breitbart Texas the arrests of former state officer Eli Rodriguez Jasso and former local cop Jose Luis Vasquez. The arrests are part of an increased effort by authorities in disrupting cartel activities and violence.

Authorities caught Rodriguez Jasso in the downtown part of the city based on an intelligence operation by the Attorney General’s Investigative Police. At the time of the arrest, police found a .40 caliber handgun and 200 marijuana packets. Shortly after the first arrest, state cops cuffed Vasquez in the Villa de Fuente neighborhood and found an AK-47 and 200 heroin packets.

While authorities arrested the former cops in separate operations, both are believed to be members of the CDN, the dominant cartel faction in the region. In recent weeks, members of Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) hung a banner in the state capital of Saltillo, claiming that top government officials allowed cartels to operate in the region and would be taking control of the state by force. In response to a recent spike in cartel murders, authorities began carrying out a series of operations targeting key members and distribution routes.

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 Coahuila.