Law Enforcement Indicate Jailbreak Was to Swell Cartel Ranks

The inmates who escaped from a Nuevo Laredo prison this week are likely part of a plan to bolster the ranks of the Zetas cartel, Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar said Saturday. Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, sits just across from Laredo, at the southern end of the I-35 corridor. It is the county seat of Webb County. Cuellar said Saturday that intelligence gathered by Texas law enforcement indicates the break was orchestrated by Orlando Monsisvais Treviño, 28, the nephew of Miguel Treviño Morales, “El 40,” believed to be the Zetas’ second in command. The Tamaulipas state government said in a news release Friday that the inmates escaped from a service entrance and were likely aided by some of the prison’s personnel. There have been no indications of spillover violence from the escape into Texas, Cuellar added. A statement issued by the state of Tamaulipas indicates the escape happened Thursday at approximately 7 p.m. though it went unreported until early Friday. The prison warden has disappeared, the statement said, and Mexican media outlet Proceso is reporting that state prison director Horacio Sepúlveda Acosta has been terminated...more