Mexican investigators on Tuesday pointed to organized crime in the killing of a top federal official in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas the previous day, saying it was likely retaliation for the authorities’ recent seizures of stolen fuel there. The assassination took place in the northern city of Reynosa along the Texas border.
On Monday, gunmen killed Ernesto Vásquez Reyna, the Attorney General’s Office Tamaulipas state delegate, in broad daylight in the middle of the busiest avenue of the border city of Reynosa, officials said.
The Attorney General’s Office said in a statement that preliminary information suggested the killing was retaliation by a group it did not name. In a social media post, the attorney general sent “its most sincere condolences to family members, colleagues and friends” of Vásquez Reyna.
Images from the scene of the assassination showed a smoldering black SUV and Vásquez Reyna’s body on the pavement. Authorities did not offer details on the attack other than to say that two additional vehicles were involved, and that one of them was recovered.
The fuel seizure in July in Reynosa was described as a “great setback” for organized crime. The statement said more than 475,000 gallons of gasoline were seized, along with tanker trucks, pumps and containers for storing the fuel.
Reynosa is controlled by a faction of the Gulf Cartel known as the “Metros.” Numerous drug cartels have gotten into the business of selling stolen gasoline as another line of illegal revenue.
In November, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against members of the Gulf Cartel, which operates in border cities across from McAllen and Brownsville, Texas.
Reynosa, a Mexican border city adjacent to the United States, has been plagued by escalating violence since 2017 due to internal disputes among groups vying for control of drug trafficking, human smuggling and fuel theft.
In May, the bodies of five musicians, members of a Mexican regional music group who had gone missing, were found in the city. Prosecutors said nine people arrested were believed to be part of a faction of the Gulf Cartel.
