Mexico kidnapping: Gulf cartel sends apology for attack as three Texas women go missing

Mexican officials are investigating whether cartel activity was tied into the kidnapping of four Americans in the border city of Matamoros, according to a document seen by Reuters.

“It cannot be ruled out that the attack against (the Americans) could be directly linked to drug trafficking operations,” according to the document.

Officials believe the US group, which ventured south seeking medical care, may have been mistakenly targeted by a drug cartel believing someone was encroaching on their turf.

Two of the Americans, identified as Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown, were found dead on Monday outside of Matamoros, along with two surviving companions.

An individual claiming to be from the cartel that allegedly kidnapped four Americans last week in Mexico, killing two of them, has apologised for the incident, pointing to a “lack of discipline” from those involved.

“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,” according to the letter, which was shared with the Associated Press by an anonymous Mexican law enforcement source.

The document said operatives from the Scorpions faction of the powerful Gulf cartel allegedly broke internal rules regarding “respecting the life and well-being of the innocent.”

The letter included a photo of five men bound and face down.

A Mexcian drug cartel has reportedly apologised for the killings of two American tourists at the hands of some of its members who mistook them for drug smugglers.

An unnamed Tamaulipas state law enforcement official provided a letter believed to be authored by the Gulf drug cartel to the Associated Press. In it, the criminal organisation promises it will turn over five men who kidnapped LaTavia McGee, Eric James Williams, Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown on 3 March.

The group was on their way to the office of a plastic surgeon in Matamoros when they were ambushed by several gunmen. Ms McGee and Mr Williams survived the attack and are back on US soil, but Woodard and Brown were killed by the time Mexican authorities found them on Tuesday.

The Gulf drug cartel has now said that the kidnappers went against the group’s rules of “respecting innocent people’s life.” A picture of the five men allegedly behind the abduction was also shared along with the note.

Andrea Blanco has the latest details.

Mexican news outlets Reforma and Milenio have identified Jose Alberto Garcia Vilano as the head of the Scorpions faction of the Gulf drug cartel, which allegedly took credit for the kidnapping of four Americans in the state of Matamoros last week.

The alleged cartel member, known by the aliases La Kena and Ciclon 19, has been linked to violent crimes in the past, including executions, according to Milenio.

“Ma, I’ll be okay.” That was what 33-year-old Latavia “Tay” Washington McGee told her mother on Wednesday 1 March before setting off on the roughly 1,500 mile journey to Mexico to visit a medical clinic.

Two days later, Washington McGee and the three friends accompanying her were ambushed and kidnapped in the border town of Matamoros by gunmen believed to be part of a Mexican criminal cartel.

The trip ended in tragedy, with one Mexican bystander and two of the Americans killed while Washington McGee and the other survivor were returned safely to the US. Mexican police have arrested at least one suspect who allegedly surveilled the victims before the attack.

It is a stark warning to the early one million Americans who are estimated to visit Mexico for medical care every year, often in border towns where violence between rival cartels is particularly dire.

Io Dodds reports.

Less than a week after four Americans were kidnapped in the city of Matamoros, Mexican officials found the group being held in a house outside of the city.

The swift government response has drawn comparisons to past tragedies, where critics say the Mexican government has dragged its feet securing the safety of Mexican citizens targeted for cartel violence, according to The New York Times.

“If only our government would apply the same force and due diligence to search for our disappeared in Mexico,” Delia Quiroa, who has been looking for a missing brother for nearly a decade, said in a recent video on social media.

In 2014, the country was rocked by the disappearance of 43 students.

Latavia Washington McGee and Eric Williams, the two surviving members of a group of Americans kidnapped last week in Mexico, are back in the US and receiving treatment, according to officials.

Ms Washington McGee, a mother of six, and Mr Williams are both in Texas, where they are getting treatment and observation from doctors, according to a Mexican official.

The former was found uninjured, while the latter was shot twice in one leg and once in the other, CNN reports.

The kidnapping of four Americans last week, which led to the death of two people in the group, has shaken US-Mexico relations.

The Biden administration says the case has its “full attention.”

“We’ve been focused on taking big actions to fight drug traffickers and to go after the financial backing of cartels and their attempt to bring fentanyl into the country,” John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council, said earlier this week, adding that the administration is “working closely with Mexico to prosecute dangerous drug traffickers and of course rallying the global community to address this crisis.”

Five rogue members of the Gulf drug cartel were turned in by the criminal organisation’s Scorpion faction for the fatal kidnapping of four Americans on 3 March.

The men were turned in along with a letter in which cartel leaders claimed that the suspects went against the group’s “rules” of always “respecting innocent lives.”

Aranza Maria Ochoa Lopez was four years old when she was last seen on a supervised visit with her biological mother at the mall in Vancouver, Washington.

The Independent’s Graeme Massie has more: