‘Friendly’ Zetas vs Gulf cartel prison soccer match ends in a bloodbath with 16 dead after fight over a dirty tackle escalated into a gun battle
By Ross Ibbetson
Daily Mail
January 1, 2020
Sixteen inmates have died after a prison riot was sparked by a dirty tackle during a New Year’s Eve soccer clash between two rival cartels in Mexico.
The 'friendly' was taking place at the Cieneguillas jail in the northern state of Zacatecas between the fearsome Gulf and Zetas Cartels.
Firearms were drawn, including long-barreled weapons, when a dispute erupted over a challenge in the penalty box.
The federal forces and the National Guard were mobilized to the prison but it took them more than three hours to stop the bloodbath.
Twenty ambulances arrived and many terrified family members paying a festive visit to their relatives were evacuated.
Fifteen were reported dead at the scene and one further casualty died in hospital.
According to La Jornada the chaos may have been a deliberate scheme by the convicts to create an escape opportunity.
A total of four firearms were confiscated in the aftermath, s ecretary of Public Security Ismael Camberos Hernández said.
The medium security prison houses around 1,000 inmates and had recently undergone a search for contraband and weapons, the authorities said.
Hernández said Monday's search uncovered: 'Seventy-seven bags of marijuana, 18 packages of rice paper, 17 knives, a saw, a 9mm cartridge, three pairs of scissors, nine phones, phone chargers, a phone battery, a memory disk, two hammers, a bottle of liquor and a can of beer jug.'
The Gulf and Zetas Cartels are two of the most powerful crime syndicates in Mexico and are locked in a bitter feud.
The Zetas in fact split from the Gulf Cartel in 2002 resulting in a bloody gang war and the end of the Gulf's dominance.
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