National Guard operation outside the Special Prosecutor's Office for Organised Crime in Mexico City following the recapture in Sinaloa of Ovidio Guzman, son of Mexican drug trafficker Joaquin ''El Chapo'' Guzman, who was reportedly arrested for the first time in 2019 and was released shortly afterwards by the authorities to prevent a massacre in the state. (Photo by Gerardo Vieyra/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Shocking video released Monday shows as four U.S. citizens were kidnapped in Mexico and forced into the back of a pickup truck after a shootout caused by a case of mistaken identity.
On Sunday, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City reported that the four Americans crossed the border into the city of Matamoros in Tamaulipas – a crime-ridden area caught in a stranglehold by narco terrorists, according to the New York Post.
The Americans reportedly were driving a white minivan with North Carolina license plates on Friday when they became targets of gunfire.
A disturbing video clip emerged Monday showing men wearing bulletproof vests as they kidnapped the U.S. citizens, dragging one person on the ground and pushing a woman into the back of a white flatbed pickup truck.
The perpetrators can then be seen accosting two men – both of whom appear to be dead or wounded – before throwing their bodies into the back of the same vehicle.
As of Monday, the victims names have not been released. It also wasn’t immediately clear where the captives were taken or what condition they are in, the outlet reports.
CNN reports that a U.S. official close to the situation said that the Americans were not the intended targets and were apparently attacked in a case of mistaken identity.
The insider added that the Americans had not entered Mexico for any criminal reasons.
On Friday, the FBI’s San Antonio Division confirmed the kidnapping and is offering a $50,000 reward for the victims’ to be returned and the kidnapper’s arrest.
The area that the Americans were kidnapped in is home to a deadly turf war between nations of the Gulf drug cartel. Shootouts in Matamoros were so brutal on Friday that the U.S. Consulate actually issued a warning about Americans traveling in the region.
Meanwhile, locals were told to shelter in place.
State police in Tamaulipas reported a still-unspecified number of people were injured or killed by gunfire on Friday.
The State Department is urging U.S. citizens to cease travel to Tamaulipas for the time being, however due to the fact that it is a border city, Americans in the nearby city of Brownsville, Texas are known to drive across country lines to visit family.
