Police kill 9 gunmen in shootout in northeast Mexico

Tamaulipas state police officers killed nine gunmen in a shootout over the weekend in Rio Bravo, a city on the MexicanU.S. border, the Tamaulipas Coordination Group said.

The shootout occurred on Saturday evening near the entrance to Santa Polonia, a community on the city limits of Rio Bravo and Valle Hermoso, the joint federal and state security agency said in a statement.

State police officers on a surveillance mission came across a convoy of gunmen, “who attacked them with firearms to avoid being arrested,” the security agency said.

“The state police officers repelled the attack and killed nine of the criminals, eight of whom died in different places in the community, while the ninth was found dead inside one of the vehicles,” the security agency said.

Officers seized nine rifles, ammunition clips, ammunition, tactical gear, other equipment and two vehicles.

All of the property seized in the operation was turned over to federal prosecutors, the Tamaulipas Coordination Group said.

The Gulf and Los Zetas drug cartels have been fighting for control of Tamaulipas and smuggling routes into the United States for years.

Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, known as “El Lazca,” deserted from the Mexican army in 1999 and formed Los Zetas with three other soldiers, all members of an elite, U.S.trained special operations unit.

After several years as the armed wing of the Gulf cartel, Los Zetas went into the drug business on their own account in early 2010 and now control several lucrative territories.

Lazcano was killed by marines on Oct. 7, 2012.

The federal government deployed additional security forces units in Tamaulipas in May 2014 and purged law enforcement agencies in an effort to stop a wave of drugrelated violence in the northeastern state.