Video After The Jump
CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico (AP) — Gunmen kidnapped 4 U.S. citizens who crossed into Mexico from Texas last week to buy medicine but were caught in a shootout that killed at least 1 Mexican citizen, U.S. & Mexican officials said Monday.
The 4 were in a white minivan with North Carolina license plates. They came under fire on Friday shortly after entering the city of Matamoros from Brownsville, Texas.
“All 4 Americans were placed in a vehicle & taken from the scene by armed men,” the FBI said. A $50,000 reward for the victims’ return & the arrest of the kidnappers is being offered.
A woman driving in Matamoros saw what appeared to be the shooting and abduction. She asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal.
The scene illustrates the terror that has prevailed for years in Matamoros, a city dominated by factions of the Gulf cartel who often fight among themselves. Amid the violence, thousands of Mexicans have disappeared just in Tamaulipas state, where Matamoros is located.
The woman said she saw the white minivan get hit by another vehicle near an intersection, then gunfire rang out.
Another SUV rolled up & several armed men hopped out.
“All of a sudden the gunmen were in front of us,” she said. “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 said the gunmen forced a woman, who was able to walk, into the back of a pickup truck. Another person was carried to the truck by the gunmen but could still move his head.
“The other 2 they dragged across the pavement, we don’t know if they were alive or dead,” she said.
President Joe Biden had been informed of the situation.
Tamaulipas state’s many border crossings with Texas make it lucrative for the cartels that move drugs, migrants & guns between Mexico & the U.S.
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