At least eight state police officers from the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas are under investigation for the alleged kidnapping of a local businessman who was forced to pay a ransom for his release.
The incident took place in May, but it wasn’t until this week that the head of the Tamaulipas police, Carlos Arturo Pancardo, was forced to confirm the kidnapping and revealed that the internal affairs division was looking into the matter. The Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office is carrying out its own investigation.
According to Pancardo, the eight officers have been moved out of Reynosa and are being held at the state police compound in Ciudad Victoria while the investigation takes place. “They are not working,” he said.
The victim’s lawyer, Alfredo Compian, claimed in a streamed statement that the officers were part of a tactical team known as the GRI or immediate response group.
The victim’s family claimed that on the day of the kidnapping, the officers forced the victim to get into his vehicle at gunpoint. They drove him to a nearby dirt road, where they beat him and threatened him that he had to pay them $30,000 USD or they would kill him. The family claimed that the businessman had to pay a fee of $10,000 per week to be able to work in Reynosa. The officers went back to his home, where they stole money, jewelry, and clothing before releasing him. The victim claimed that the officers stole $7,000 USD.
The case comes at a time when the Tamaulipas government has been the subject of much controversy. Tamaulipas Governor Americo Villarreal recently lost his U.S. visa after being allegedly linked to fuel theft organizations and to various cartels. Since the start of the Trump administration, Villarreal has not crossed into the United States for any business or official meetings, something that other governors in the past, as well as governors from other states, do on a regular basis in an attempt to promote development and cross-border business. In 2022, Breitbart Texas reported on how the Gulf Cartel had pressured voters in Tamaulipas to help get Villarreal elected into office.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Read the full article here