The Mexican military rescued 20 kidnapped men from a house in the northern city of Monterrey, a military spokesman said on Sunday.
“The release of these 20 people was the work of intelligence services from the secretary of defense and a response to the high rate of kidnappings that exists in the city of Monterrey,” military spokesman Antonio Vargas said.
The rescue came after the military raided the house where the hostages were being held early on Sunday morning.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The victims were in a 9m2 area and their hands and feet were bound. They said they were recently kidnapped in different parts of Monterrey, the third-largest city in Mexico.
The kidnappers demanded a ransom for each hostage of between 20,000 and 50,000 pesos (between US$1,789 and US$4,300).
Kidnapping in the industrial-hub city has become “an illicit organized crime that gangs commit in order to cover their expenses, and we are fighting it head-on,” Vargas said.
The operation involved house-to-house checks carried out by military in the area.
According to the government, the states of Nuevo Leon, whose capital is Monterrey, and Tamaulipas, are the scenes of a deadly war between the Gulf Cartel and its former allies Los Zetas, who control the drug trafficking routes into the US and criminal activities in local markets.
Meanwhile, 10 decapitated bodies were found in the northern Mexican city of Torreon in the country’s latest grisly mass murder as drug gangs war over smuggling routes, Mexican newspapers reported on Sunday.
The bodies were dumped in the back of a truck with their heads scattered across the city, Reforma newspaper reported.
Authorities said the killers left a message directed at another gang, the paper said.
In related developments, recently arrested leader of Los Zetas says the group gets their drugs in Guatemala and their weapons are smuggled from the US across the Rio Grande.
Rejon Jesus Enrique Aguilar, also known as “El Mamito,” is a leader and founder of Los Zetas, which was founded by military deserters.
Aguilar was arrested on July 3 in a district near the Mexican capital.
In a video copy of his statement that was delivered to the media this week by Mexico’s secretary of homeland security, Aguilar said his group obtains their drugs in Guatemala.
“We buy in Guatemala,” he answers to a question about where they get the cocaine that they traffic. “It is not reliable [buying from] the Colombians.”
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China’s technological leaps. The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21km race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, said a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race began. That was faster than the human world record holder, Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward
An earthquake registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.7 off northern Japan on Monday prompted a short-lived tsunami alert and the advisory of a higher risk of a possible mega-quake for coastal areas there. The Cabinet Office and the Japan Meteorological Agency said there was a 1% chance for a mega-quake, compared to a 0.1% chance during normal times, in the next week or so following the powerful quake near the Chishima and Japan trenches. Officials said the advisory was not a quake prediction but urged residents in 182 towns along the northeastern coasts to raise their preparedness while continuing their daily lives. Prime
HAZARDOUS CONDITION: The typhoon’s sheer size, with winds extending 443km from its center, slowed down the ability of responders to help communities, an official said The US Coast Guard was searching for six people after losing contact with their disabled boat off the coast of Guam following Typhoon Sinlaku. The crew of the 44m dry cargo vessel, the US-registered Mariana, on Wednesday notified the coast guard that the boat had lost its starboard engine and needed assistance, Petty Officer 3rd Class Avery Tibbets said yesterday. The coast guard set up a one-hour communication schedule with the vessel, but lost contact on Thursday. A Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules aircraft was launched to search for the six people on board, but it had to return to Guam because of
RSS