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A total of 23 unidentified individuals were killed or found dead in ongoing drug and gang related violence in the last 24 hours in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, according to Mexican news accounts.
Nine victims were found early Friday morning hanged from a bridge. The victims included five men and four women. A narcopinta or blanket painted with a message was hung nearby claiming the victims were affiliated with the Gulf cartel.
Later that morning, at around 1100 hrs 14 individuals who had been beheaded and mutilated were found. Those victims were stuffed into black plastic trash bags. Their heads were found nearby
Nuevo Laredo is generally considered to be Los Zetas territory, but indications exist that drug and shooter gangs associated with the Gulf and Sinaloa Cartels are trying to drive Los Zetas from their sole border city.
The Sinaloa and Gulf Cartel formalized an alliance in 2011. Los Zetas were formally the Gulf Cartel's enforcement wing, but split from them in early 2010. Los Zetas originally came from Mexican special forces, and have in the past recruited from Mexican and Guatemalan special forces communities. But because of arrests, killings and the simple fact that many have been kicked upstairs, the group has become a shadow of its former self.
