The FBI said Monday that four U.S. citizens have been kidnapped in northern Mexico after gunmen opened fire on their vehicle in the border city of Matamoros, located in the Tamaulipas state.
US and Mexican law enforcement are currently investigating the incident.
The quartet had entered Matamoros, a city across from Brownsville, Texas, on Friday. They were traveling in a white minivan with North Carolina license plates.
The FBI San Antonio Division office said in a Sunday statement that the vehicle wasn’t in Mexico for long before they came under fire shortly after it entered Mexico. The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for the arrest of the culprits and the return of the victims.
Shootouts in Matamoros–home to belligerent factions of the Gulf drug cartel– prompted the US Consulate to put out an alert about the danger. Local authorities warned people to shelter in place. The US State Department advises visitors not to got to Tamaulipas (along with five other Mexican states) due to crime in the region and the inability of local law enforcement to respond effectively.
