MONTERREY, Nuevo León — A failed kidnapping by a group of roughly 15 cartel hitmen unleashed a fierce gun battle with police in one of the main municipalities of Nuevo Leon.

People eating at various restaurants near a shopping center in Guadalupe suffered several minutes of terror when a team of Gulf Cartel (CDG) hitmen fired various high-powered weapons against police forces to escape after a failed kidnapping. Guadalupe is considered a middle-class suburb that makes up an important part of the industrial boom in Nuevo León.

A law enforcement source revealed to Breitbart Texas that an ongoing federal investigation warned authorities about the deployment of a cell of hitmen operating under the orders of “La Yegua,” a regional chief of the CDG in Tamaulipas. The group was sent to Nuevo Leon to kidnap a businessman with a questionable reputation. At the time of the failed kidnapping, the businessman was eating at a restaurant called Los Generales, which is on Avenida Miguel Alemán, one of the main avenues in the city.

The gunmen positioned themselves at various points around the haunt to provide surveillance and cover to the men that would carry out the kidnapping. The battle began when the hitmen spotted a convoy of federal police pulling up to the area. The intensity forced the federal cops to call for backup from their state counterparts.

Unofficially, police sources told Breitbart Texas they arrested of a woman and 13 gunmen from Tamaulipas and Jalisco, and seized various vehicles and three AK-47s. The case was turned over to the organized crime unit (SEIDO) of Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office in Mexico City.

The victim of the failed kidnapping was only described as a businessman who is known to be related to local drug trafficking activities and is believed to reside in the western part of Monterrey. Authorities did not reveal if the victim was arrested or if he managed to escape the scene.

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 Tony Aranda from Nuevo León.