Escape of 129 Mexican Inmates Near U.S. Prompts Border Alert

At least 129 Mexican inmates escaped through a tunnel at a prison across from Eagle Pass, Texas, prompting local officials to alert the U.S. border patrol and warn that the Zetas cartel organized the breakout.

The prison’s director and security chief were detained, Coahuila’s state government said in a statement last night. Alleged members of the Zetas gang tried to block authorities from reaching the jail after the escape, triggering a firefight that left four criminals dead, the state’s police chief, Jorge Luis Moran, said in a radio interview today with Radio Formula. Police lowered the number of fugitives to 129 from 132 out of a population of about 730 inmates.