General Bravo, Mexico – The bodies of six men – blindfolded, handcuffed and shot to death – were found Sunday packed inside a pickup truck on the side of a highway leading to the Texas border.
Police found the men in General Bravo, a town about 55 miles from Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas, said Camerino Ortiz, a police spokesman.
Ortiz said one of those killed was in the cabin and the rest were stashed in the back of the truck. All had their eyes covered with bandages and were handcuffed with their feet tied.
Investigators recovered more than 50 bullet casings near the abandoned pickup.
Marcelo Garza, director of investigations for Nuevo Leon state, where General Bravo is located, said investigators found a message inside the truck. It said: “This is a message for those in the Gulf Cartel, traitorous pals.” Also Sunday, police found the corpse of another shooting victim inside a car on the outskirts of Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas, and about 100 miles northwest of where the six bodies were found.
Authorities say violence in Nuevo Laredo and across northeast Mexico has been on the rise since March 2003, when Osiel Cardenas – the reputed leader of the Gulf Cartel mentioned in the note left with the dead men – was arrested during a shootout in Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas.
Investigators believe another accused drug lord, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, has been fighting smugglers loyal to Cardenas to gain access to drug smuggling routes in Nuevo Laredo and other border cities.
So far this year, 60 people have been slain in Nuevo Laredo, home to about 300,000.
