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Protective Intelligence Lessons from an Ambush in Mexico
On the afternoon of May 27, a convoy transporting a large number of
heavily armed gunmen was ambushed on Mexican Highway 15 near Ruiz,
Nayarit state, on Mexico’s Pacific coast. When authorities responded
they found 28 dead gunmen and another four wounded, one of whom would
later die, bringing the death toll to 29. This is a significant number
of dead for one incident, even in Mexico.
According to Nayarit state Attorney General Oscar Herrera Lopez, the
gunmen ambushed were members of Los Zetas, a Mexican drug cartel.
Herrera noted that most of the victims were from Mexico’s Gulf coast,
but there were also some Guatemalans mixed into the group, including one
of the wounded survivors. While Los Zetas are predominately based on
the Gulf coast, they have been working to provide armed support to
allied groups, such as the Cartel Pacifico Sur (CPS), a faction of the
former Beltran Leyva Organization that is currently battling the Sinaloa
Federation and other cartels for control of the lucrative smuggling
routes along the Pacific coast. In much the same way, Sinaloa is working
with the Gulf cartel to go after Los Zetas in Mexico’s northeast while
protecting and expanding its home turf. If the victims in the Ruiz
ambush were Zetas, then the Sinaloa Federation was likely the
organization that planned and executed this very successful ambush. Read more »
