Search for alleged tourists concludes with the rescue of 105 kidnapped migrants

During air and land operations in which police units from Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí, the National Guard and the Army participated, four groups of people were released at different points who had been kidnapped while transiting through the road matehuala.

The San Luis Potosí State Attorney General’s Office reported this Friday that after a coordinated deployment of air and ground forces in the city of Matehuala, “dozens of people deprived of their liberty were located, including a significant number of migrants of foreign nationality”.

In addition to the arrest of two people, while a driver of a company truck that rented two vehicles to transport the 23 people was found dead, who “apparently died as a result of beatings, although this will be determined by the legal necropsy,” the agency said.

During the operation they also seized several vehicles with reports of theft, and weapons of various calibers.

In this context, the Prosecutor’s Office clarified that the people located are not kidnapped tourists, as initially reported, “but rather people in transit who do not have a residence permit in the country.”

According to the investigations and various interviews with the hostages, it was established that 12 migrants plus the driver were traveling in one of the vehicles and the driver and three other people were in the other vehicle.

On Thursday night, Mexico’s Secretariat for Citizen Security and Protection (SSPC) specified that the 23 alleged tourists who were kidnapped in Matehuala when they were traveling in two trucks from Guanajuato to Saltillo, Coahuila, were migrants.

In addition, the SSPC clarified that they were two different events since on Wednesday the Government of San Luis Potosí reported the rescue of 16 people from the states of Mexico, Querétaro and Guanajuato, who were also heading to Saltillo, Coahuila.

While on Thursday, the San Luis Potosi Prosecutor’s Office and the Government of Guanajuato reported the discovery of 35 migrants who were deprived of their liberty and who could correspond to the group of people denounced as kidnapped two days ago.

It is believed that the victims were traveling when they were detained by a group of criminals that operates in the limits of San Luis Potosí and Nuevo León.