Gunmen kidnapped four US citizens who crossed into Mexico from Texas last week to buy medicine and were caught up in a shootout that killed at least one Mexican, US and Mexican officials said Monday.
The four were attacked Friday shortly after entering the city of Matamoros from Brownsville, in the southern tip of Texas near the Gulf Coast, in a white minivan with North Carolina license plate, the Division of Police office said. San Antonio del FB.
“The four Americans were placed in a vehicle and driven from the scene by armed men,” authorities said. The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for the return of the victims and the arrest of the perpetrators.
The US ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, said in a statement Monday that they were kidnapped at gunpoint and that a Mexican citizen was killed in the incident.
Several US federal agencies were working with their Mexican counterparts to rescue the hostages. Authorities have not released details about who they are.
Victims of violence in Matamoros and other large border cities are often undercounted because the cartels have a history of taking their own bodies with them. Local media often avoid reporting such incidents for security reasons, creating an information vacuum.
The State Department has warned US citizens not to travel to Matamoros. However, as a border city, Americans living in Brownsville or elsewhere in Texas cross frequently to visit family, medical appointments, or shopping. It would also be a crossing point for people traveling further into Mexico.
Three American brothers disappeared near Matamoros in October 2014 and were later found shot and burned to death. They had disappeared two weeks earlier while visiting their father in Mexico. His parents said they had been kidnapped by men dressed in police gear who identified themselves as “Hercules,” a tactical security unit in the violent border city.
