American girl, 7, killed during Mexican cartel operation; mother blames police helicopter: report

Résumé détaillé

Aranza Aidelany Pardo's mother says a Tamaulipas state police helicopter fired the shot that killed her 7-year-old during a Gulf Cartel operation.

A 7-year-old dual U.S.-Mexican citizen was shot and killed during a security operation in Matamoros, Mexico. Her mother says police aboard a helicopter opened fire on the family's vehicle.

A 7-year-old girl with dual U.S. and Mexican citizenship was shot and killed during a Mexican security operation targeting an alleged cartel member, and her mother accused police officers aboard a helicopter of firing the deadly shot.

Aranza Aidelany Pardo died Oct. 29 in Matamoros, a Mexican border city across from Brownsville, Texas. She was among six people killed during the operation and subsequent roadblocks erected by the Gulf Cartel, according to The Associated Press.

Her mother, Claudia Pardo García, told the AP that gunfire from a Tamaulipas state police helicopter struck her daughter in the head. Pardo was also wounded in the leg.

Mexican authorities are investigating three officers aboard the helicopter who remain on active duty, according to Tamaulipas Public Security Secretary Carlos Arturo Pancardo.

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The Rio Grande is seen from an international bridge in Matamoros, Mexico, Jan. 15, 2026. A 7-year-old American girl was killed in the border city during a Mexican security operation. (Gabriel V. Cardenas/AFP via Getty Images)

The operation resulted in the arrest of Axel Alfredo Cárdenas Rodríguez, also known as El Titán, the son of an alleged Gulf Cartel leader and nephew of the group's imprisoned founder, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén.

Pardo told the AP that she, her husband and their five children were returning home when they encountered cartel roadblocks and took a rural shortcut.

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