The La Joya Police Department says it found two Gulf Cartel members walking with a group of immigrants along the 500 block of east Expressway 83 on Tuesday.
The department said on Facebook that the men, who said they were from Matamoros, were with a group of seven migrants when they were encountered.
“Upon making a brief interview with the 2 men Officers learned that they were Gulf Cartel mercenaries from the Cyclones Spartanos cell,” police said in the post.
According to La Joya police, the men were being sent to different parts of Tamaulipas to cause conflict between rival Gulf Cartel factions.
“The men stated that they were escaping Matamoros after a failed attack with Mexican Marines in which 17 of the mercenaries that were within their group were killed by the Mexican Marines and they were able to escape,” police stated. “The men fled to Reynosa Tamaulipas where they were given passage, after paying, into the United States through La Joya jurisdiction. The men stated that the Gulf Cartel was looking for them for defecting from the group.”
La Joya police turned the men over to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
