- The Gulf Cartel turned over five members of their Scorpions Group armed wing for their alleged role in the kidnapping of four Americans
- The incident shook the northeastern border city of Matamoros last Friday
- Americans Latavia McGee and Eric James were rescued and Shaheed Woodard and Zindell Brown were found dead
- A 33-year-old Mexican national was killed after she was struck by a stray bullet
Five Gulf Cartel assassins who kidnapped four Americans and killed two have been tied up and dumped in the street by narco bosses.
The suspects were pictured smirking as they were arrested in the center of border city Matamoros on Wednesday night – along with a truck used in the abduction.
A note from their bosses, written in Spanish, was left with the henchmen apologizing for the killings and claiming they were happy to hand over those responsible.
They claimed the assassins – who were part of the notorious Scorpions splinter group – operated outside of ‘cartel rules’ and ‘condemn’ the attack, adding ‘the CDG has always respected the life and integrity of the innocent’.
It comes as questions are being raised over why the Americans were in the cartel-run city in the first place after DailyMail.com revealed their previous links to drugs.
The Mexico government announced on Thursday it was probing whether the kidnapping ‘could be directly linked to drug trafficking’. The survivors’ families have claimed they were there so one of the group could get a cheap tummy tuck surgery.
Mexico now says Gulf Cartel’s kidnap of The Tummy Tuck Four ‘could be directly linked to drug trafficking’ – after DailyMail.com revealed the South Carolinians lengthy drugs rap sheets
Friend stopped from crossing into Mexico with The Tummy Tuck Four raised alarm with US cop
A fifth passenger who was denied entry to Mexico where her four friends were later kidnapped by crime and drug syndicate Gulf Cartel said that she thought they’d been arrested because they were known to ‘party and use narcotics.’
Cheryl Orange said that she’d traveled to the southern border with Latavia ‘Tay’ McGee, Eric Williams, Zindell Brown, Shaeed Woodard for her friend’s cosmetic tummy tuck.
A fifth passenger, identified as Cheryl Orange, who was denied entry to Mexico
Orange’s trip came to a sudden halt when she was denied entry because she lacked the proper identification – the four carrying on to Matamoros where they were caught in gang crossfire before being abducted. Only Williams and McGee surviving the ordeal.
In an text exchange with Associated Press, Orange said that her friends were supposed to return after dropping McGee to her ‘tummy tuck’ and – when they didn’t return she grew concerned and alerted police.
A case report states that Orange ‘appeared worried and nervous’ and ‘an odor of marijuana’ had been ’emitting from her person’
It comes as footage of the group driving down to the southern border – filmed in the lead up to the tragic kidnapping – emerged in the wake of their kidnapping.
Mexican law enforcement agents are investigating the possibility that members of a drug cartel kidnapped four Americans last Friday thinking that they were encroaching on their turf, according to an internal government document seen by Reuters.
DailyMail.com revealed lengthy rap sheets for the four kidnapped U.S. citizens with authorities stating ‘drug trafficking’ cannot be ‘ruled out.’
Two of the Americans, identified by Mexican officials as Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown, were found dead on Monday in a wood cabin southeast of Matamoros, the border city in the state of Tamaulipas where the four were abducted on Friday.
Alongside them were their surviving companions, identified as Latavia McGee and Eric James Williams.
Mexican officials, who say they are pursuing various lines of inquiry, drew up a brief document summarizing the abduction of the Americans and biographical information on them. The metadata of the digital document suggested it was created on Wednesday.
It included their names, birthdays and addresses, and details of criminal records. Among them were convictions for drug-related offenses against Brown and Woodard.
In view of the prior convictions, ‘it cannot be ruled out that the attack against (the Americans) could be directly linked to drug trafficking operations,’ which their assailants believed the Americans could be carrying out, the document said.
Reuters left voicemails and sent messages on social media to people identified by public records as relatives of the four, as well as at a number for Williams, but without response.
A Reuters review of South Carolina state records found that Woodard was convicted five times between 2007 and 2016 of drug crimes. Nearly all were minor offenses, but they included one of manufacturing banned narcotics with the intent to distribute.
Brown was convicted twice in 2015 for possessing small amounts of marijuana or concentrated cannabis, records show.
The records also showed that Williams was in 2017 convicted for the manufacture and distribution of cocaine, though this was not mentioned in the Mexican document seen by Reuters.
Americo Villarreal, governor of Tamaulipas, said during a news conference on Monday that the group had gone to Matamoros because McGee was planning to have some cosmetic surgery done, citing testimony from their relatives and U.S. officials.
Tamaulipas Attorney General Irving Barrios told the same news conference the four were likely mistaken for somebody else, while stressing that other lines of investigation remained open.
Reuters could not ascertain how a drug gang might have known Americans with drug convictions were arriving in Matamoros.
It is also not clear if Mexican authorities have other evidence that might point to a drug-related motive for the abduction, which occurred in broad daylight.
The document seen by Reuters stated that a faction of the Gulf Cartel had an ‘iron grip’ on illegal activities in the area, and pointed to members of the group as likely perpetrators of the kidnapping on the basis of intelligence gathered.
