Keystone-SDA
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June 24, 2024 – 08:46
(Keystone-ATS) A police officer and three suspected drug traffickers died Sunday during an armed clash in the city of Matamoros (northeastern Mexico), authorities announced.
The shooting broke out as police chased a van carrying several armed men, the government of the state of Tamaulipas, where Matamoros is located, said on social media.
Local authorities said three of them died while another fled, and also reported the death of “a member of the State Guard”, a local security force.
Matamoros, which borders Texas, is the scene of clashes between the Gulf Cartel and rival criminal groups, such as Los Zetas, according to authorities.
The state of Tamaulipas is one of those in Mexico most affected by drug trafficking. The city of Matamoros is also a stopover on the route of migrants who illegally cross the Rio Grande to reach the United States.
The roads in this region are considered the most dangerous in the country, due to the risk of kidnapping and extortion by criminal groups. In March 2023, suspected members of the Gulf Cartel kidnapped four Americans there, two of whom were killed.
Some 32 Venezuelan and Honduran migrants were kidnapped last January while traveling on a bus on the highway linking Reynosa to Matamoros, a journey of less than 90 km.
Violence linked to cartels has left some 450,000 dead and more than 100,000 missing since 2006 in Mexico, when President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) launched a military offensive against drug trafficking.
