Mexico kidnapped latest: FBI offers reward for four Americans kidnapped in Matamoros as all identified

Here is the full text of the FBI’s appeal for public assistance in identifying the four Americans’ kidnappers.

Oliver Rich, Special Agent in Charge for the San Antonio Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), whose territory includes Brownsville, Texas, announced today that the FBI is asking the public for help in identifying the person responsible for the attack( en) pleads kidnapping of four US citizens in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico on March 3, 2023.

FBI, federal partners, and Mexican law enforcement are investigating. The FBI announces a $50,000 reward for repatriating victims and arresting those involved.

On March 3, 2023, four Americans drove to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico in a white minivan with North Carolina license plates. Shortly after crossing to Mexico, unknown perpetrators shot at the occupants of the vehicle. All four Americans were placed in a vehicle and removed from the scene by gunmen.

The public is urged to call the San Antonio FBI Department at 210-225-6741 for information regarding this investigation. Tips can also be submitted online at https://tips.fbi.gov

Individuals providing information may remain anonymous.

The identities of three of the four US citizens kidnapped at gunpoint in Mexico after being ambushed while crossing the border have been released.

Christina Hickson says her son, 28-year-old Zindell Brown, was one of four Americans who drove in a white minivan across the US-Mexico border to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, on Friday, WPDE reported.

The four US citizens kidnapped at gunpoint in Mexico are not believed to have been deliberately attacked, reports CNN.

Citing a US official with knowledge of the investigation, the network reports that it was likely a mistake.

The same official said the Americans were not in Mexico for criminal purposes.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has called on the US military to “take out” the Mexican cartels after it was revealed that four American tourists were kidnapped in Mexico.

According to the US embassy and consulates in Mexico, the group entered the northeastern Gulf Coast state of Tamaulipas from Brownsville, Texas, driving a white minivan with North Carolina license plates.

Shortly after entering the country, they were attacked by armed men in the border town of Matamoros.

After firing at the van, the attackers took the passengers to another vehicle and drove them away from the scene, the embassy said.

The identities of the Americans have not yet been released and the purpose of their trip has not yet been established.

On Monday morning, an unnamed US official said the four Americans were not the intended targets and that they had traveled to Matamoros for medical procedures.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the group was in the country to buy medicines.

“The information we have is that they crossed the border to buy medicines in Mexico, there was a confrontation between groups and they were arrested,” the president said. “The whole government is working on it.”

Matamoros is notorious as a center for gang violence and illegal migrant smuggling. It is dominated by the Gulf drug cartel, but power struggles have erupted between factions in recent years.

Tamaulipas State Police said on its social media channel that people were killed and injured in two shootings in Matamoros on Friday that neither the military nor the police were involved in, but gave no further details about the shootings or said if the kidnappings were linked.

The US consulate in Matamoros warned its staff on Friday in response to the recent outbreak of violence.

Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has called on the US military to “attack strategically and take out the Mexican cartels.”

The controversial congresswoman has tweeted about Mexico and the cartels several times since news broke on Friday that four Americans had been kidnapped.

She initially wrote, “Mexican cartels kidnapped 4 Americans this weekend and Mexico is so DANGEROUS that if you go to Mexico you’re ‘on your own!’ But but but.. Ukraine!”

Our military should be stationed on our southern border. We should strategically attack and eliminate the Mexican cartels, not the Mexican government or its people, but the Mexican cartels they all control. They are international terrorists and criminals murdering Americans with drugs and crime every day! They make BILLIONS from drug and human trafficking and terrorize anyone who gets in their way. Our military is competent and should take them out quickly. Make an example of these monsters. The only difference between the cartels and ISIS is that the cartels are on our southern border.

Finally, Rep Greene added: “What is the difference between ISIS and Antifa and the Mexican cartels? Nothing. They are all terrorists and should be treated as such.”