Five people in Mexico held over killings of Americans – state prosecutor

Soldiers stand guard outside the Forensic Medical Service morgue building ahead of the transfer of the bodies of two of four Americans kidnapped by gunmen to the U.S. border, in Matamoros, Mexico, March 9, 2023. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

MEXICO CITY — Five people have been detained in the case of the deadly kidnapping of four Americans in the border state of Tamaulipas, the state’s attorney general said on Friday.

Two Americans and a Mexican woman were killed after gunmen opened fire on the four U.S. citizens shortly after their arrival in the city of Matamoros on March 3.

Government officials found the four Americans on the city’s outskirts on Monday, March 6, by which time only two were alive. A man guarding the victims was arrested at the time.

READ: Two of four Americans kidnapped by gunmen in Mexico found dead

Mexican officials gave the bodies of the two dead men, identified as Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown, to U.S. officials on Thursday afternoon.

Law enforcement agents in the Latin American country are investigating the possibility that members of a drug cartel kidnapped the four foreigners thinking they were encroaching on their turf.

Suspected drug cartel members on Thursday handed over five purported henchmen as a would-be apology for the abduction of the four Americans.

READ: Medical tourism in spotlight after Mexico kidnapping