A chilling video leaked online captures the moment a group of soldiers in Mexico execute five alleged cartel members in broad daylight after their vehicle crashed into a wall of a store following a high-speed chase. Mexican President André Manuel López Obrador has vowed that the group of soldiers will be prosecuted for their actions.
The chilling footage from May 18 showed the victims' black pickup truck slamming into a store's wall at high speed in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, which is across the border from Laredo, Texas. The military vehicle that had been chasing the pickup then crashes into the right side of the vehicle close to the passenger door.
Shocking Way to Execute
The alleged members of the criminal organization were dragged over the muddy ground after being battered out of the truck, forced to kneel in front of a wall, and then shot before the soldiers attempted to cover up the scene.
The leaked CCTV footage appears to show the soldiers taking off the men's handcuffs and placing firearms next to their bodies as emergency services arrive.
Mexico's Defense Ministry claimed that the men killed in the horrifying incident were drug traffickers.
Mexico has been dealing with growing fears of cartel members, which has only escalated over the years. However, the action of the soldiers has been criticized, with Obrador vowing to take action against them.
"Apparently this was an execution, and that cannot be permitted," López Obrador remarked on Wednesday during his regular morning press conference at Mexico City's National Palace. "Those responsible are about to be turned over to the appropriate authorities."
The victims have been identified as Jose Angel, 27, José Antonio, 32, Edgar Chavarra, 38, José Isabel, 23, and Clinton Alex, 25. Their last names were withheld by the authorities.
Multiple shootouts and road blockades were reported to authorities on the day of the incident leading up to the massacre, though no injuries or fatalities were reported.
Nuevo Laredo Mayor Carmen Cantn took to social media to advise citizens to take shelter at their homes and places of employment on social media, till authorities had a clearer understanding of the alleged incidents.
According to the Mexican newspaper Proceso, lieutenant José Nava reported the incident to the Ministry of National Defense and said that the troops had come under fire from alleged members of the Cártel del Noreste (Northeast Cartel), while they were inspecting a pickup truck that was transporting the five victims.
Nava said that the suspects were killed in a crossfire while attempting to recover their firearms during the search.
Planned Murders
They claimed it was only after the shooting ceased that they found that four of the detainees were dead and a fifth was in critical condition before dying at the hospital.
At 1:36 pm, the surveillance camera captured footage of the pickup truck carrying the alleged drug traffickers driving over the median and nearly colliding head-on with two vehicles before slamming into the building wall.
A minute later, the military arrive and remove the five men from their car. Two minutes would pass until one of the soldiers took out a Barrett.50 caliber semi-automatic rifle, the same weapon that the Jalisco New Generation Cartel had planned to use in the failed murder attempt on Mexico City's security head Omar Garca in June 2020.
After that, the cartel members are hauled from the vehicle.
Soldiers are shown being instructed by a serviceman who appears to be in command to line up the suspects and have them kneel facing the wall.
The military truck departs the leaves at 2:41 pm, and the soldier who was shouting orders is seen directing his comrades where to stand before the truck returns. The soldiers stay back and start beating the suspects as he boards the truck on the left.
The soldiers then position themselves close to the pickup truck when one of them fires two bullets in the general direction of where the suspects were held.
They then start firing, but their alleged assailants are not to be found. Later, the soldiers approach the suspects and point their rifles at them.
The troops are then seen putting their weapons next to the bodies of the five victims after shooting them. Four of the suspects were pronounced dead at the site, while a fifth died in the ambulance on the way to the nearby hospital. He was shot three times.
The killings seem to be a challenge to López Obrador's approach to law enforcement, which relies nearly entirely on the military.
The incident makes it at least the second case of apparent extrajudicial killings this year in Nuevo Laredo. On February 26, soldiers murdered five young men who were traveling inside a car.
