Tula prison break | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the Mexican drug war | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
| Mexican police | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
2 injured | |||||||
On 1 December 2021, a gang of armed men broke into a prison in Tula de Allende, Hidalgo state, Mexico. [1] [2]
At around 4am on 1 December 2021, gangsters arrived at the building, they proceeded to car-ram and then blow up a pair of vehicles, catching the prison guards' attention. Gunshots were fired by the criminals. [3] [4]
Just as local security forces began to react, two more cars exploded, allowing the gang to successfully storm the jail. [1] [5]
Nine inmates were freed, [6] including José Artemio Maldonado Mejía, more well known as "El Michoacano", a local drug lord and head of a Mexican drug cartel, the Pueblos Unidos. [2] The next day, Mexican police managed to recapture three inmates and 8 criminals involved in the prison raid. [7]
Two law enforcement officers, one a policeman and the second a guard, were injured in the attack. [2]
The government of Hidalgo has launched an investigation aiming to track the criminals down. The program is still ongoing. [4]
Car bombs are a rare occurrence in Mexico; the most notable example of their usage occurring in 2010. [8] [6]