No arrests were made at the clinic, according to the statement. By reviewing police surveillance video around the city, authorities were able to identify the ambulance and find the clinic. The Americans told investigators they were taken to the clinic in an ambulance to receive first aid, the statement said. Meanwhile, the Tamaulipas state prosecutor’s office said Thursday it had seized an ambulance and a medical clinic in Matamoros that were allegedly used to provide treatment to the Americans after the shooting. Days later, authorities arrested three suspects, but it turns out they had been kidnapped by a cartel, beaten into confessions implicating a rival group and turned over to police. In 2008, drug traffickers in Michoacan lobbed hand grenades into a crowd celebrating Mexico’s independence, killing eight. Saucedo cautioned that a cartel leader may have authorized the attack then regretted it and decided to offer sacrificial lambs to police. Handing over alleged cartel suspects to police is also not without precedent. Zindell Brown and Shaeed Woodard died in the attack Williams and Latavia McGee survived. Shortly after, the FBI took over the case as social media videos began to show a shootout with the victims matching the description of the missing people.Īuthorities located them Tuesday morning on the outskirts of the city, guarded by a man who was arrested. A detective was assigned to the case within the hour and then alerted the FBI after realizing the people had crossed into Mexico. A Mexican woman, Areli Pablo Servando, 33, was also killed, apparently by a stray bullet.Īnother friend, who remained in Brownsville, called police after being unable to reach the group that crossed the border Friday morning.īrownsville Police Department spokesman Martin Sandoval said Thursday that officers followed protocol by checking local hospitals and jails after receiving the report of the missing people. Around midday, they were fired on in downtown Matamoros and then loaded into a pickup truck. Last Friday, the four Americans crossed into Matamoros from Texas so that one of them could have cosmetic surgery. Wallace, 62, called for the American and Mexican governments to better address cartel violence. “It ain’t gonna change nothing about the suffering that we went through,” Jerry Wallace told the AP on Thursday. “It is very difficult right now for them to continue working in terms of street-level drug sales and transferring drugs to the United States they are the first ones interested in closing this chapter as soon as possible,” Saucedo said. The Americans’ killings brought National Guard troops and an Army special forces outfit running patrols that “heat up the plaza” in narco terminology, Mexican security analyst David Saucedo said. And last Friday’s violence in Matamoros was bad for cartel business. “We have decided to turn over those who were directly involved and responsible in the events, who at all times acted under their own decision-making and lack of discipline,” the letter reads, adding that those individuals had gone against the cartel’s rules, which include “respecting the life and well-being of the innocent.”ĭrug cartels have been known to issue communiques to intimidate rivals and authorities, but also at times like these as public relations work to try to smooth over situations that could affect their business. In a letter obtained by The Associated Press through a Tamaulipas state law enforcement official, the Scorpions faction of the Gulf cartel apologized to the residents of Matamoros where the Americans were kidnapped, the Mexican woman who died in the cartel shootout, and the four Americans and their families.
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