Mexican cartel blames its own members for kidnapping American tourists

Mexican authorities reportedly believe one of the most dangerous leaders of the Gulf drug cartel is behind the kidnapping of four Americans in Matamoros last week.

Sources close to the government told a local media Millennium that investigators are considering whether José Alberto García Vilano, known as “La Kena,” is related to the fatal kidnapping of four US citizens on March 3. Vilano’s whereabouts have been unknown since Mexican authorities offered a reward for his capture in April 2022.

the independent has the story:

Andrea Blanco has this in stunning photographs taken earlier this week of the moment LaTavia McGee and Eric James Williams were found alive and rescued by police from their captors in a remote rural area of ​​Tamaulipas known as Ejido Longoreno.

The four friends were ambushed by gunfire shortly after their minivan crossed the border into the city of Matamoros on March 3, before being dragged away in a pickup truck.

They were found in a wooden shack on March 7 in a remote area of ​​the Gulf State in a rural area east of Matamoros.

Two of the victims, Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown, were found dead in the shack, an official said. CNN.

the independent‘s Bevan Hurley has the timeline of events:

Relatives of the Americans kidnapped in Mexico said a purported apology from the Mexican cartel blamed for the attack has done little to ease the pain of their killed or injured loved ones.

James Woodward, Shaeed Woodard’s father, said he was speechless to hear the cartel apologize for the violent kidnapping that was captured in footage that quickly spread online.

“I’ve been trying to make sense of this for a whole week. Just restless, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat. It’s crazy to see your own child taken from you like that, in a violent way like that. He didn’t deserve it,” Woodward told reporters, referring to the death of his son.

Meanwhile, the cousin of Eric Williams, who was shot in the left leg during the kidnapping, said his family feels “good” knowing he is alive, but is not accepting any apology from the cartel.

“It’s not going to change any of the suffering we went through,” Jerry Wallace told the AP.

Wallace, 62, called on the US and Mexican governments to better address cartel violence.

An unidentified Tamaulipas state law enforcement officer delivered a letter believed to be written by the Gulf drug cartel to the Associated Press. In it, the criminal organization promised to turn over five men who kidnapped LaTavia “Tay” McGee, Eric James Williams, Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown on March 3.

“We have decided to hand over those who were directly involved and responsible for the events, who at all times acted under their own decision-making and lack of discipline,” the letter says, according to the statement. access point.

An extended version of the letter shared by local media also read: “The Scorpion branch of the Gulf drug cartel denounces the March 3 attack, in which a (Mexican) working mother was killed and four US citizens were kidnapped. . Two of them were also killed.

“(The five members) went against the rules of the Gulf drug traffickers to respect the life and integrity of innocent people. We apologize to the residents of Matamoros…and to the American families affected.”

“The Gulf cartel asks the community to be calm because we are committed to never making this type of mistake again and that the guilty pay.”

The local woman shot dead in the crossfire during the cartel’s kidnapping of the four Americans in Matamoras last Friday has been identified as Areli Pablo Servando, a 33-year-old church official who worked with children at a school in summer.

Servando was hit by a stray bullet fired during the hail of gunfire emitted by the Scorpions faction of the Gulf cartel during the incident, according to Tamaulipas Governor Américo Villareal, who added that she was a block and a half away at that time. moment.

According The Daily MailServando was a graduate of the National College of Technical Professional Education and worked with children at the Bible Summer School.

He was also reportedly a member of the Young Pentecostal Power Ambassadors Association.

Priscila Andrade, president of the association, said The universal newspaper: “Arelita, as I affectionately called her, was my vice president along with many other things… My little sister, best friend and partner.”

The handwritten note from the Gulf cartel apologizing for the tragedy in Matamoros may come as a surprise to many, but in fact it is not an entirely unknown public relations tactic by Mexico’s drug gangs.

Community outreach efforts like this are actually relatively common in the country. In disputed territory, for example, a gang might hang banners around a city blaming a rival for recent violence and portraying itself as the side that doesn’t mess with civilians.

Last November, such banners appeared throughout the state of Guanajuato, allegedly written by the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel, which blamed a rival for a series of murders at bars and other businesses.

In other situations, the message is stronger: bodies are left inside a vehicle with a note or hung from an overpass on a busy highway. In those cases, the motivation is simply terror, plain and simple.

More subtly, the cartels use their power to plant stories in the local press or to suppress the appearance of unwanted news. Its members are often active on social media.

Their underlying interest is always facilitating their business, whether it be drug and migrant smuggling or extortion.

Sometimes a cartel will fire on its rival’s territory in hopes of triggering a police response to make business difficult for its opponents. That is what seemed to happen two years ago in Reynosa, on the border with Matamoros. Gunmen entered the city shooting and killing 14 innocent bystanders.

The handing over of suspected cartel suspects to the police is also not without precedent. Mexican security analyst David Saucedo Gas warned that a cartel leader may have authorized the attack and then backed down and decided to offer sacrificial lambs to police in order to limit the damage.

In 2008, drug traffickers in Michoacán threw hand grenades into a crowd celebrating Mexico’s independence, killing eight people. Days later, authorities arrested three suspects, but it turned out they had been kidnapped by a cartel, beaten into confessing to implicating a rival group, and turned over to police.

Additional agency reports.

The group has not been heard from for two weeks after heading to a flea market in the city of Montemorelos.

The four friends were ambushed by gunfire shortly after their minivan crossed the border into the city of Matamoros on March 3, before being dragged away in a pickup truck.

They were found in a wooden shack on March 7 in a remote area of ​​the Gulf State in a rural area east of Matamoros.

Two of the victims, Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown, were found dead in the shack, an official said. CNN.

the independent‘s Bevan Hurley has the timeline of events:

The kidnapping of the four Americans from South Carolina has drawn attention to a terrifying kidnapping in the same cartel-controlled border city of Matamoros more than 30 years ago.

Texas college student Mark Kilroy was 21 when he disappeared on spring break in 1989.

The search went on for almost a month before Kilroy’s remains were found in a mass grave along with other victims.

It was discovered that he had been kidnapped, tortured and murdered by a satanic drug smuggling cult.

Gustaf Kilander has the full story.