4 Americans kidnapped by Mexico gunmen after crossing border to buy medicine
- The FBI is offering a US$50,000 reward for help finding the victims and arresting the perpetrators
- Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says the US citizens are believed to have been got caught up in a confrontation between criminal groups
Mexican and US authorities said on Monday they were working to urgently secure the safe return of four US citizens shot at and kidnapped by gunmen after crossing the border into Mexico.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) offered a US$50,000 reward for help finding the unidentified victims and arresting the perpetrators of the incident, in which a Mexican national was killed.
The US citizens crossed into Matamoros, in Tamaulipas state, on Friday in a white minivan with North Carolina licence plates, the FBI said in a statement released by the US embassy in Mexico.
“Shortly after crossing into Mexico, unidentified gunmen fired upon the passengers in the [minivan]. All four Americans were placed in a vehicle and taken from the scene by armed men,” the FBI said.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the victims were believed to have entered the country to buy medicines and got caught up in a confrontation between criminal groups. The Mexican security ministry was working with the FBI to find them, he told reporters.
The US ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salzar, said in a statement that an “innocent Mexican citizen was tragically killed” in the incident.
