Cartel gunmen used a dump truck to conceal an attack on state police forces by moving the vehicle at a high rate of speed straight into an armored police truck with five officers inside. The crash killed two officers and injured three others.

The attack took place this week in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, where gunmen with the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas used a dump truck to ram a police vehicle at a high rate of speed. The impact killed two officers and injured three others, including a police commander who had been the target of previous attacks.

After the crash, authorities arrested Alfredo Martinez Gomez, who was identified as the driver of the dump truck and is currently under investigation for the attack.

Credit: Breitbart News Foundation / Cartel Chronicles

The tactic allows the CDN-Los Zetas to disguise the attack as a car crash, thereby avoiding direct linkage. Local news outlets reported on the case as a simple car crash.

The CDN-Los Zetas used this same tactic in June when they also used a tractor-trailer to ram another police vehicle, injuring two officers.

Credit: Breitbart News Foundation / Cartel Chronicles

The target of the most recent attack was Luis Angel Penaflor Camey, a regional commander for the Tamaulipas state police who had been leading a series of operations against CDN-Los Zetas in Nuevo Laredo. Because of his operations, the CDN-Los Zetas previously tried to kill him in May by firing into a small seafood restaurant as he ate inside with other officers. In that attack, the gunmen injured two officers and three innocent bystanders. At the time, the CDN-Los Zetas used social media to accuse Penaflor of having been helping a rival cartel.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.