A former border state policeman died after getting in a shootout with his Gulf Cartel associates. The officer joined the criminal organization after facing an internal affairs probe for corrupt practices.
The murder took place in mid-December when 29-year-old Leonardo Daniel Tinajero Hernández was drinking with members of the Gulf Cartel. During that celebration, Tinajero pulled out a handgun and began firing at associates before running away, law enforcement sources revealed exclusively to Breitbart Texas. The motive for the shooting remains unknown.
Tinajero had been a state police officer in rural Tamaulipas towns until earlier in 2021, when he became the target of a corruption investigation. After a judge formally charged him and issued a detention order, Tinajero went on the run and joined the Gulf Cartel.
During the shooting, Tinajero injured José “El Pepillo” Eduardo Guevara González, a Gulf Cartel member who operates in the town of Padilla and is considered a fugitive by state authorities for kidnapping. Tinajero also injured Luis Benito Salazar Herrera. Emergency medical personnel rushed the wounded men to a local hospital and eventual custody for El Pepillo.
The rest of the gunmen began a manhunt and were able to capture Tinajero in short order. They stuffed the former cop in a Mercury Grand Marquis and were in the process of moving him to another location when the vehicle broke down along the San Luis Potosi-to-Matamoros Highway. The shooters then carjacked a Chrysler minivan and fled the scene, but not before throwing Tinajero on the road and shooting him. The former cop died the following day.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to Mexico City and the 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 “Francisco Morales” from Tamaulipas.
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