Gulf Cartel Begins Taxing Border Citizens for Right to Own Trees

The Gulf Cartel instituted a tax against homeowners in the Mexican border city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, for the right to have trees on their property. The government-protected criminal organization has a long history of being able to operate with complete impunity in that city.

This month, gunmen from the Matamoros faction of the Gulf Cartel, known as Ciclones, began visiting homeowners throughout the city and telling them that they would have to pay 100 pesos, or approximately $5 a month, per large tree that provides shade at their homes. Those not paying the monthly tax must cut down trees or face consequences.

Breitbart Texas learned that this practice was already in place in the cities of Valle Hermoso and Rio Bravo, both in Tamaulipas, and it wasn’t until this month that they began to implement it in Matamoros. The Gulf Cartel has a long history of being able to extort innocent victims and businesses due to the widespread complicity of local and state government officials.

As Breitbart Texas reported last year, the Gulf Cartel even resorted to using individuals who were alleged city employees who would extort a monthly fee from local businesses. These people would even provide receipts for the extortion. Those “fees” were not paid to the city but instead given to the Gulf Cartel.

In a separate case, Breitbart Texas exposed exclusively that one of the former top officials with the city’s civil protection department had been an enforcer for the Gulf Cartel. He recently went to prison for kidnappings on behalf of the criminal organization. That individual was also one of several city employees under investigation for letting the Gulf Cartel use city ambulances to quietly move a group of cartel-kidnapped U.S. citizens.

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 their original Spanish. This article was written by “J.A. Espinoza” from Tamaulipas.