FBI investigates kidnapping of four Americans in Mexico

The FBI has reported the kidnapping of four Americans who were traveling in Mexico. In a statement, the agency asked for public cooperation in locating the victims or the armed men who assaulted them while they were traveling in a minivan in the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico.

"On March 03, 2023, four Americans crossed into Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico driving a white minivan with North Carolina license plates. Shortly after crossing into Mexico, unidentified gunmen opened fired on the vehicle and its passengers. All four Americans were placed in a vehicle and taken from the scene by armed men," reads the FBI memo outling the details of the kidnapping.

Reward of $50,000

The Bureau's special agent in charge of the San Antonio area, Oliver Rich, said they are working in collaboration with other federal agencies as well as Mexican law enforcement. The FBI has offered a $50,000 reward for the return of the victims and the surrender of the kidnappers.

For the moment, neither the FBI nor the State Department are willing to elaborate any further on the information they have provided, nor have they provided the identities of the four kidnapped U.S. citizens.

Tamaulipas on State Department's blacklist

Tamaulipas, which lies across the southern border from Texas, is one of six Mexican states to which the State Department strongly advises citizens against traveling due to the high risk of crime and kidnappings.

"Criminal groups target public and private passenger buses and private automobiles traveling through Tamaulipas, often kidnapping passengers and demanding ransom payments," State Department warnings state. Heavily armed criminal groups often patrol the state's border regions, says the official guide.