AFP is reporting that Mexican authorities fear more drug gang violence after the killing of a top leader of the Gulf cartel.
Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, also known as "Tony Tormenta," was killed during a lengthy shootout in northeastern Mexico last week, a government spokesman said Monday.
Cardenas Guillen, who officials said died in a three-hour shootout with soldiers in Matamoros, was believed to be the current head of the Gulf gang, one of Mexico's oldest, which has been fighting a particularly brutal turf war with its former allies, the Zetas, this year.
"In the short term, this will certainly create instability inside criminal organizations immediately," said security spokesman Alejandro Poire, on the Televisa channel.
Telephone bomb threats aimed at educational establishments provoked further fears in Matamoros Monday.