5 more arrested in deadly kidnapping of Americans in Mexico
Mexico City, Mar 10 (EFE).- Mexican authorities Friday arrested five more men in connection to the kidnapping of four Americans and the murder of two of them in the border city of Matamoros, said the attorney general.
Six people have been detained for their alleged involvement in the kidnapping and the murder, Tamaulipas Attorney General Irving Barrios Mojica said.
The attorney general said the prosecutors executed the “arrest warrant against five people linked to the events of Mar.3 in Matamoros for the crimes of aggravated kidnapping and intentional simple homicide.”
“One more person, arrested in recent days, was linked to the process,” Barrios Mojica tweeted.
The prosecution, however, did not clarify if the five detainees were those who appeared handcuffed in police custody on Wednesday morning.
The Gulf Cartel, a criminal group operating in the area, had turned over five members and apologized for the kidnapping and the murders.
The four abducted US citizens were a group of friends who had traveled over the border so that one could undergo surgery in Mexico, where health services are far cheaper than in the US, CNN reported earlier.
They were identified by family members as Latavia ‘Tay’ Washington McGee, a mother of six who was to undergo the medical procedure, along with her friends Shaheed Woodward, Zindell Brown and Eric, the US news channel reported.
The northeastern state of Tamaulipas, which sits on the Gulf of Mexico and borders the US state of Texas, has a high rate of violence and cartel activity.
At the time of the kidnapping, a 33-year-old Mexican woman, who was in the vicinity, died, becoming the victim of a stray bullet.
The third kidnapped was wounded by a firearm and the fourth was unharmed.
The survivors were handed over to the United States earlier this week, while the bodies were repatriated on Thursday.
The Mexican authorities said Tuesday that the assault and kidnapping in the northeastern city of Matamoros was likely a case of mistaken identity.
Irving Barrios said investigators believed the Americans were attacked and abducted after being wrongly identified as members of a rival gang. EFE
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