A Mexican-American dual citizen was kidnapped Friday evening while driving on the Monterrey-Reynosa highway (Federal Highway 40D) in the northeastern state of Nuevo Leon.
Luis Habram Tamez Garcia was headed to Monterrey to visit family when shortly before 2000 he was stopped by a group of armed assailants near the municipality of General Bravo.
The assailants were traveling in Chevy SUV equipped with strobe lights and reportedly identified themselves as ministerial police.
When they forced Tamez Garcia to stop, he called a family member, placing the phone down so the encounter could be overheard.
The family member could hear a man asking Tamez Garcia why he didn’t stop at a checkpoint.
Before the audio cut out, one of the assailants was heard asking a female accomplice if they should arrest the victim.
Tamez Garcia was driving a Dodge Ram 1500 TRX, an especially expensive and high-performance version of the popular pickup line.
Some media reports have suggested that members of the Cartel of the Northeast (Spanish abbr: CDN) stopped Tamez Garcia to steal his pickup, but the situation quickly evolved into a kidnapping.
Over the weekend, the security forces reportedly intercepted communications between CDN operatives discussing the abduction and the movement of military and police units in the area searching for Tamez Garcia.
Tamez Garica, whose family runs a meat distribution business in Nuevo Leon, is a resident of the municipality of China, 60 miles northeast of Monterrey.
The group is reportedly seeking $50,000 for Tamez Garcia’s release.
The CDN, made up of remnants of the Los Zetas criminal organization, was just designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) last Thursday by the Trump administration.
A major concern throughout northern Mexico are ad hoc checkpoints set up by cartel gunmen to screen for rivals moving through the area.
Central Nuevo Leon is currently disputed territory between the Sinaloa Cartel and Los Chukys, the armed wing of the CDN.
Moreover, cartel operatives throughout Mexico prefer to travel in large, American-made pickups and SUVs with four-wheel drive, leading to violent carjackings.
The victim’s Dodge Ram TRX is not only be highly prized by cartel operatives but also implies the driver as being relatively wealthy, often leading to kidnappings.
A businessman from Texas kidnapped on 6 February in Reynosa in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas was found dead after he had traveled to downtown Reynosa to pay a property tax at city hall.
When he failed to return home, his family reported him missing.
The victim, 81-year-old Jose de la Luz Martinez Ramirez, had been driving a Jeep Gladiator SUV with Texas license plates. The vehicle was later found abandoned in northern Reynosa.
His body was found near the Anzalduas International Bridge, which connects Reynosa with McAllen, Texas.
Two suspects were arrested in connection with the abduction and murder.
The assailants almost certainly keyed on the victim’s late-model large SUV with Texas license plates.
Drivers operating vehicles with out-of-state license plates in Mexican states with high levels of cartel activity are especially at risk of being mistaken for rivals by trigger-happy cartel members.
Tamaulipas, long considered one of the most dangerous states in Mexico, is home to a number of cartels and hundreds of other lesser criminal gangs.
Travel along Federal Highway 40 cannot be sanctioned at this time.
Travel between Monterrey and Reynosa should be undertaken by air.
Intercity road travel is discouraged even in daylight throughout the country, but especially in northern Mexico, where police routinely hunt cartel operatives and cartel gunmen often set up checkpoints to screen for members of rival groups. Running gun battles are not uncommon.
If confronted by police, cartel operatives or robbers, drivers and passengers should comply immediately with their instructions.
If a roadblock is encountered, the best course of action is to stop. Attempting to run the checkpoint, whether legitimate or not, surely will draw gunfire. If a checkpoint is encountered, the driver should turn on the vehicle’s hazard lights to indicate that he has seen it, keep both hands on the wheel, and avoid any abrupt movements. They should stop when instructed to do so.
Driving anywhere in Mexico with out-of-state or US license plates draws unwanted attention. The use of local license plates is recommended whenever possible.
It is never wise to travel in large luxury SUVs or pickups, cartel operatives’ conveyance of choice.
