Natalie Neysa Alund and Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY
Tue, March 7, 2023 at 9:58 AM CST· 4 min read
Four American citizens were assaulted and kidnapped by unidentified gunmen after crossing into Mexico last week to buy medicine, Mexican officials said Monday.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Monday the four Americans were going to buy medicine and that “there was a confrontation between groups, and they were detained."
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said in a statement the Americans were kidnapped at gunpoint and an “innocent” Mexican citizen died in the attack. He said various U.S. justice agencies were working with their Mexican counterparts to recover the missing persons.
Authorities have provided no other details about the victims.
Victims drove white minivan with North Carolina plates
The Americans came under gunfire from the men shortly after crossing the border on Friday through the city of Matamoros, in the Tamaulipas state, across from Brownsville, Texas, Special Agent Oliver Rich, who is in charge of the FBI's San Antonio Division, announced Sunday.
The victims crossed into Mexico driving a white minivan with North Carolina license plates, the FBI said. Shortly after, the gunmen fired upon the passengers in the vehicle, and the four Americans were placed in another vehicle and taken from the scene by the men.
Tamaulipas’ chief prosecutor, Irving Barrios, said a Mexican woman died in the attack but did not specify whether she was killed in the same gunfight where the kidnapping took place.
President Joe Biden had been informed of the situation, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday. She declined to answer other questions, citing privacy concerns.
Law enforcement has not released the names of those who they said were kidnapped but Zalandria Brown of Florence, South Carolina, said she has been in contact with the FBI and local officials after learning that her younger brother, Zindell Brown, is one of the four victims.
'This is like a bad dream'
Brown said her brother, who lives in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and two friends had accompanied a third friend who was going to Mexico for a tummy tuck surgery.
The four friends, according to Brown, were extremely close and had planned to split up driving duties for the trip. They were aware of the dangers in Mexico, she added, and her brother had expressed some misgivings.
"Zindell kept saying, ‘We shouldn’t go down,'" Brown said. “This is like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from. To see a member of your family thrown in the back of a truck and dragged, it is just unbelievable.”
Zindell Brown’s family asked people to share any relevant information with local authorities.
Increased cartel violence in the region
Cartel violence has increased over the past 10 to 15 years in Tamaulipas, and violence within the state has left thousands of victims uncounted because the cartels have a history of taking bodies of their own with them.
The Gulf Cartel is currently based in Matamoros which directly borders Brownsville, where U.S. citizens frequently cross to travel deeper into Mexico, visit family, attend medical appointments, or shop.
Although Matamoros was once a popular vacation spot and a relatively calm area, the State Department has warned U.S. citizens not to travel to the city due to ongoing violence.
In 2014, three American siblings disappeared near Matamoros while visiting their father and were later found shot to death and burned. Their parents said they had been abducted by men dressed in police gear identifying themselves as “Hercules,” a tactical security unit in the city.
The U.S. State Department has issued a "Level 4: Do Not Travel" advisory for U.S. citizens in Tamaulipas, citing crime and kidnapping there.
$50,000 reward offered in case
The FBI is seeking the public’s assistance in identifying those responsible for the assault and kidnapping and is offering a reward of $50,000 for the return of the victims and the arrest of those involved.
The FBI, federal partners, and Mexican law enforcement agencies are investigating, officials said.Anyone with information about the case is asked to call FBI San Antonio Division or submit a tip online.
Contributing: The Associated Press
