Four Americans kidnapped in Mexico may have been targeted unintentionally: report

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Michael Lee | Fox News


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Four Americans who were kidnapped shortly after crossing into Mexico were in the country for medical reasons and may have been the victims of mistaken identity.

The U.S. citizens were crossing from Texas into Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, in an attempt to buy medicine when they began taking fire and were eventually dragged out of their minivan and kidnapped by armed assailants, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Monday, according to the Associated Press.

"There was a confrontation between groups, and they were kidnapped," López Obrador said.

Video of the incident circulating on social media Monday appeared to show the group being confronted by multiple armed men wearing bulletproof vests, with one female being forced into the bed of a white pickup truck and other victims being dragged across the parking lot and loaded into the same truck. Fox News has yet to independently verify the authenticity of the video.

A U.S. official said the Americans were attacked by mistake and were not the intended targets of the assault, according to a New York Post report Monday.

Ken Salazar, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, said Monday that an innocent Mexican bystander was killed in the attack and that the U.S. and Mexican governments are cooperating in an attempt to obtain the release of the four Americans.

"We have no higher priority than the safety of our citizens," Salazar said. "Officials from various U.S. law enforcement agencies are working with Mexican authorities at all levels of government to achieve the safe return of our compatriots."

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During a news conference Monday, López Obrador said that he had been in contact with the governor of Matamoros and expressed optimism that the four Americans would be returned safely.

"I think it will get resolved," López Obrador said. "That's what I hope."

The Americans were driving a white minivan with North Carolina plates when they crossed into Matamoros, which sits across the border from Brownsville, Texas. Tamaulipas is one of six Mexican states that the U.S. State Department warns against travel due to an increased risk of "crime and kidnapping."

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The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward from the public for information leading to the return of the abducted Americans. Anyone with information regarding the investigation is encouraged to call FBI San Antonio Division at 210-225-6741.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Michael Lee | Fox News


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Two of the four American citizens kidnapped in Mexico are dead while the other two remain alive, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing the governor of Tamaulipas.

Dramatic video shows the moment four Americans were kidnapped shortly after crossing into Mexico, in what authorities have called a case of mistaken identity.

The video of the violent incident shows armed men in body armor dragging one person across the pavement and pushing a woman into the bed of a white truck, then dragging two more men who appear to be wounded across the pavement and loading them into the bed of the same truck.

Photos from the scene show a white minivan with North Carolina plates riddled with bullet holes shortly after the kidnappings, with a woman who reportedly witnessed the attack telling the Associated Press she saw the minivan collide with another vehicle before hearing gunfire and seeing armed men approach the van.

"All of a sudden they (the gunmen) were in front of us," said the woman, who declined to be identified for fear of retaliation. "I entered a state of shock, nobody honked their horn, nobody moved. Everybody must have been thinking the same thing, ‘If we move they will see us, or they might shoot us.’"

She added that she saw the men force one woman who was able to walk into the bed of their truck, while another victim who she said could move his head was loaded into the truck.

"The other two they dragged across the pavement, we don't know if they were alive or dead," she said.

According to law enforcement, the group of Americans were traveling to Mexico for health services last week when the minivan they were driving was attacked by a group of armed men, who shot at the vehicle before dragging the Americans out and loading them into a truck. The four Americans were not thought to be the intended target of the attack.

The group crossed Brownsville, Texas, into the Mexican city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, an area that has been plagued by cartel violence and carries a travel advisory from the State Department warning Americans to avoid visiting.

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One of the four Americans in the group, Zindell Brown, was identified by his sister, Zalandria Brown of Florence, South Carolina, on Tuesday, saying she has been in contact with the FBI and Mexican authorities since the incident.

"This is like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from," Brown told the Associated Press. "To see a member of your family thrown in the back of a truck and dragged, it is just unbelievable."

Brown said her younger brother is from Myrtle Beach and was visiting Mexico with three friends, one of whom was there to get a tummy tuck surgery.

She added that her brother was hesitant to make the trip, warning his friends about the dangers before they departed.

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"Zindell kept saying, ‘We shouldn’t go down,’" Brown said.

The victim’s father, O’dell William Brown, said the family is reeling from the news.

"I don’t know which way to go right now," he said. "We don’t know what’s what."

It is unclear if Brown is one of those who died in the incident.

The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the return of the victims and arrests of those responsible.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Peter Aitken | Fox News


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A letter purportedly from the Mexican cartel allegedly behind the kidnapping and subsequent killing of Americans last week claimed it has dealt with the members "involved and responsible" for the incident, handing them over for authorities to detain.

"We have decided to turn over those who were directly involved and responsible in the events, who at all times acted under their own decision-making and lack of discipline," the letter from the Gulf Cartel, reviewed by The Associated Press, states.

A photograph of five men face down on the pavement and bound accompanied the letter. The letter also apologized to residents of Matamoros, Mexico, where the kidnapping occurred, and for the death of an innocent Mexican woman during the incident.

The letter stressed the individuals responsible for the kidnapping and murder had gone against the cartel’s rules, which include "respecting the life and well-being of the innocent."

An unnamed state security official told The Associated Press five men had been found tied up inside one of the vehicles that authorities had been searching for, along with the letter.

The State Department did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment by the time of publication.

Members of a Mexican cartel kidnapped four Americans who traveled across the border from Brownsville, Texas, to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, last week. Two of the Americans and an innocent Mexican bystander died during the incident, according to U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar.

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An internal government document reviewed by Reuters indicated Mexican law enforcement is pursuing an investigation into the possibility the kidnapping occurred because the cartel members believed the Americans had encroached on their turf.

The document includes details of the Americans, including drug-related convictions against two of the members, which the Mexican government allegedly argued makes it possible the Americans "could be directly linked to drug trafficking operations."

The four Americans have been identified as LaTavia McGee, Shaeed Woodard, Eric Williams and Zindell Brown, all of South Carolina. The FBI has said it cannot identify the survivors, but McGee and Williams have been identified by their families as the survivors, and Mexican officials confirmed Woodard and Brown as the deceased.

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Woodard was convicted five times between 2007 and 2016 of drug crimes, nearly all of which were minor offenses, and Brown was convicted twice in 2015 for possessing small amounts of marijuana or concentrated cannabis, Reuters reported. Williams also had a 2017 conviction for the manufacture and distribution of cocaine.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said at a press conference Thursday that officials have worked "diligently" and "around the clock" to get the remains of the deceased repatriated, noting that sometimes the details of the process can cause delays. He stressed that the U.S. will use "every tool" to pursue the cartels "to the fullest extent."

Tamaulipas Gov. Americo Villarreal said authorities found the four in a wooden shack guarded by a man, whom they arrested. The cartel had moved the Americans to different locations, at one point taking them to a medical clinic "to create confusion and avoid efforts to rescue them," according to WBTW.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday blamed the drug cartels for the incident, and he promised that the DEA and FBI "are doing everything possible to dismantle and disrupt and ultimately prosecute the leaders of the cartels and the entire networks that they depend on."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

[lost in melb.]

Lol. Don't wanna P off Uncle Sam

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Lol. Don't wanna P off Uncle Sam

It's because there are politicians in the US that want the cartels listed as terrorist groups and involve the US military in taking care of them. They want to take it from law enforcement (FBI and ICE) and turn it over to the military.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

They said sorry