Five musicians murdered in alleged Mexican cartel killing
Five musicians disappeared in the Mexican city of Reynosa on May 25th and were later found murdered by suspected cartel members involved with the smuggling of drugs.
Nine alleged members of the notorious Gulf Cartel have been arrested on suspicion of murder, according to Irving Barrios Mojica, the attorney general for the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. Nine firearms and two vehicles were seized during the arrest, Mojica confirmed.
The Diario de Mexico newspaper said on May 29th that the bodies of the five musicians had been discovered. The musicians formed a band known as Grupo Fugitivo. They were reportedly kidnapped on their way to a private event on May 25th. After this incident, their relatives received ransom demands.
According to family members, the musicians were hired to put on a concert but arrived to find that the location of their performance was a vacant lot. Their family members held a protest urging the authorities to act.
No clear motive is yet known for the killings. The musicians ranged from the age of 20 to 40. They often played at local events, such as dances, parties, and weddings.
Ironically, Grupo Fugitivo performed regional Mexican music, including the corridos genre. Historically, this sort of music has been used to pay homage to cartels and their leaders. Recently, the US revoked the visas for a Mexican corridor band after they “glorified” a drug cartel leader.
Their music may have implicated them in a cartel scheme. The killings could also be due to the long history of violence in Tamaulipas, where the Gulf Cartel has a large presence. In this case, Investigators used video surveillance footage and mobile phone tracking to establish the musicians’ last movements.
In a similar case, 17 musicians from the group Kombo Kolombia were executed in 2023 by alleged cartel members in the northeastern state of Nuevo Leon.
The US gave Reynosa the highest travel advisory in January. The Trump administration warned citizens not to travel there, after designating the Gulf Cartel “a global terrorist organisation”.
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