A Russian female, who was abducted in the northeastern region of Mexico, has been set free, according to statements from the Russian embassy and Tamaulipas state officials on Sunday.
Authorities have not disclosed the identity of the woman, who was set free without any ransom payments. After her release, she was transferred to a police station in Reynosa, a city in Tamaulipas state, near the USA border, as reported by the diplomatic officials on social platforms. Police sources divulged she was found in a healthy state late Saturday by a state anti-abduction unit but withheld further information about the nature of the rescue, the individuals involved in her abduction, or their subsequent apprehension or neutralization.
The abducted woman is speculated to have been taken captive while journeying with some Mexican acquaintances between Monterrey in Nuevo Leon state and Reynosa. In a prior incident in March last year, an alleged criminal group known as the Gulf Cartel abducted four Americans in Tamaulipas, an incident that resulted in the death of two victims.
In this attack, Americans Zindell Brown and Shaeed Woodard were killed, while Eric Williams and Latavia McGee survived. A Mexican woman, named Areli Pablo Servando, aged 33, also died in the incident, seemingly from a wayward bullet.
An image depicts a Mexican military person safeguarding the Tamaulipas State Prosecutor’s office in Matamoros, Mexico, on March 8, 2023.
The Gulf drug cartel handed over five individuals in connection with the abduction incident. A note believed to be from the Scorpions segment of the Gulf cartel condemned the violent act, stating that the gang had surrendered its members involved in the incident to the authorities. On an occasion in January, Mexican marines apprehended one of the top leaders of the Gulf cartel.
Tamaulipas is one of the states severely impacted by organized crime-related violence, including drug peddling and abduction. It is also a common transit route for undocumented migrants aiming to enter the United States.
In a recent clash near the US border in Tamaulipas, Mexican troops on patrol gunned down 12 armed assailants last month.
This report was aided by inputs from The Associated Press.
Other headlines from CBS News cover a mass shooting in Washington D.C. that left 2 dead and 5 injured, vandalized polls amid Russia’s fake elections, a truck driver arraigned for causing a fatal pile-up in Louisiana amid intense fog, an incident of a California beach polluted by sewage leak, and the US government’s initiative to evacuate its citizens from Haiti via chartered flights.
