A Mexican-American dual citizen kidnapped Friday evening while driving on the Monterrey-Reynosa highway (Federal Highway 40D) in the northeastern state of Nuevo Leon was found alive early yesterday following a search by the security forces.
The search reportedly involved the Specialized Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the State Prosecutor’s Office (Spanish abbr: FAS), the state police, the National Guard and the army.
The victim, Luis Habram Tamez Garcia, was found not far from where he was first taken.
He was reportedly in good health.
Tamez Garcia was headed to Monterrey to visit family when shortly before 2000 on Friday he was stopped by a group of armed assailants near the municipality of General Bravo, which is located adjacent to Federal Highway 40D.
The assailants were traveling in a 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.
The authorities have stated that the assailants stopped Tamez Garcia to steal his high-end pickup truck, with some media reports suggesting it was by members of the Cartel of the Northeast (Spanish abbr: CDN).
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 chain of grocery stores in Nuevo Leon, is a resident of the municipality of China, 60 miles northeast of Monterrey.
The group was 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.
The highways between Monterrey in Nuevo Leon State and Reynosa in Tamaulipas State are some of the most dangerous in the country.
On 12 February two Chinese nationals were carjacked by several armed assailants who stripped them of their Ford Lobo pickup truck on the highway near General Bravo.
The two victims were unharmed though left stranded on the highway until local police came to their aid.
An intense shootout between cartel operatives and the police in the afternoon on 5 February left five gangsters dead in General Bravo.
The shootout erupted when gunmen from the Gulf Cartel ambushed a police patrol.
One police officer was seriously wounded.
Police seized several military-style rifles, tactical equipment and a pickup truck from the cartel operatives.
A Russian woman kidnapped on 18 March while traveling from Monterrey to Reynosa was released two days later.
Reportedly, 23-year-old Maria Rigovich was found alive by police in Reynosa, in the volatile northeastern state of Tamaulipas. She had been traveling with at least two Mexican citizens who were not abducted.
Rigovich apparently texted her husband at one point to say that her vehicle was being pursued by cartel members and that she loved him. According to Russian press reports, Rigovich’s husband later sent $15,000 to a bank account designated by the kidnappers.
Travel along Federal Highway 40D cannot be sanctioned at this time.
Travel between Monterrey, in Nuevo Leon State, and the Tamaulipas State cities of Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey and Reynosa should be undertaken by air.
The use of large, luxury American-made SUVs and pickup trucks should be avoided throughout Mexico, as they are highly prized by cartel operatives, with carjackings common.
