CENA 16-year-old Mexican ‘hitman’ had his head blown off in a gruesome shootout with police.
At around noon on Tuesday (August 27), Juanito Pistola, also known as Commander Little, and six other members of Hell’s Troop were ordered to ambush police in the town of Nuevo Laredo, a smuggling gateway.
Dressed in military clothing and armed with rifles, they travelled in a van and ended up in a gunfight with police officers near the airport.
CENPistola was killed in grisly fashion: the police’s superior high calibre rounds made a mess of the troop’s bodies, practically taking the teen’s head off in the process.
Another four members of Hell’s Troop, a wing of the notorious Northeast Cartel (CDN), were killed in clashes with the Tamaulipas Police.
Vanguardia report that Pistola was previously arrested by police in 2015, however he was released due to only being 13-years-old at the time.
CENAccording to local media, the vehicle Pistola died in had been used in a previous attack on police several days prior.
Local social media videos and rap songs refer to Pistola as being a hitman in the ranks of the CDN since he was just 13 – it’s said that cartels regularly hire minors to work as drug smugglers.
According to Telemundo, the lyrics of one of the rap songs circulating on social media are:
It doesn’t matter how old I am to go here pulling,
I am a kid but here I am working
‘Juanito Pistolas’, that’s what they called me
Due to numerous international bridges and its extremely close proximity to the US, Nuevo Laredo is a key location for the cartels.
CENUnfortunately, the town has bore witness to a number of gun battles between gangs and police in recent weeks – according to Telemundo, a policeman has been killed and two others injured.
A video posted on Twitter by Christian F. Santamans appears to show trucks marked with CDN insignia speeding down the highway as gunshots ring out in the background.
ESTE ES EL TAMAULIPAS SEGURO QUE PROMOCIONA CABEZA DE VACA
Se registra otra agresión contra elementos de la Policía Estatal en #NuevoLaredo #Tamaulipas, datos preliminares una mujer policía resultó herida de bala, luego de enfrentarse a civiles armados al poniente de esa ciudad. pic.twitter.com/lm1A4o3m3n— Christian F. Santamans (@ChriSantamans) August 22, 2019
Formerly known as Los Zetas, CDN have controlled the town of Nuevo Laredo since 2004 after a bloody war with the rival Sinola cartel.
The fight between the two groups lasted more than a year and resulted in the death of 2,000 people, while 1,000 others are still missing.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.