WASHINGTON DC: The Scorpions Group, a splinter group of the Gulf Cartel, has handed over five of the members and left a note of apology, Mexican media outlets and The Associated Press reported Thursday.
They apologized for kidnapping four US residents last week, killing two of them, and decided to turn in the men it believes are responsible for the same, according to reports from the Mexican border city of Matamoros.
Many Mexican newspapers published a photograph on their front pages that appears to show five men lying face down on the ground, their hands bound and their T-shirts pulled up above their heads. It was apparently taken just as police arrived.
The Scorpions Group allegedly left a letter with the men in which it apologized to the people of Matamoros, the US victims, and their families and a Mexican woman killed last week when the gang opened fire on a white minivan carrying Americans.
According to the Associated Press, a copy of the letter was obtained from a law enforcement agency in the state of Tamaulipas.
“We have decided to turn in those who were involved directly and responsible for the occurrences”, the letter reads, saying the five had “acted through their own decision-making and lack of discipline”. The men are also accused of violating the cartel’s rules regarding “protecting the lives of the innocent,” according to the letter.
Meanwhile, police have cordoned off a health clinic in Matamoros where cartel members allegedly took injured US citizens for treatment. According to reports, the gang took the four Americans there, but the two with the most serious injuries, Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown, died soon after.
Authorities in Mexico
According to Reuters, Mexican authorities handed over the bodies of the two deceased men to US authorities in Matamoros on Thursday afternoon.
The latest developments come as some in Mexico have questioned the initial version of events. The group was said to have travelled to Matamoros so that one of them, Latavia McGee, could undergo a cosmetic medical procedure at the city’s clinic. She was said to have been accompanied to the appointment by three friends.
According to Reuters, three of the four Americans were convicted of minor drug-related offenses, but one was charged with manufacturing prohibited narcotics with the intent to distribute.
According to Reuters, the Mexican authorities are looking into the possibility that the four Americans were kidnapped because they were mistaken for rival cartel members encroaching on their territory.
The inquiry into the Americans’ background comes as the political temperature surrounding the Matamoros incident continues to rise. Several Republican politicians in the United States, including South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, have called for the use of US armed power against Mexico’s drug cartels.
In the midst of tense relations, US Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall is in Mexico for a meeting with President Lopez Obrador to discuss the US’s worsening fentanyl and the synthetic opioid crisis.
