Mexican officials have arrested a suspect in connection with the kidnapping of four US citizens, two of whom have been killed.
Jose Guadalupe N., 24, stood guard at the house where cartel members held captive and tortured the four Americans: Latavia “Tay” McGee, Eric James Williams, Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown.
Authorities have not revealed whether Guadalupe, a Mexican citizen, is part of the Gulf Cartel, the gang accused of kidnappings, which operates in the region.
The victims were discovered Tuesday in a wooden shack in Ejido Tecolote, a rural area east of the Mexican city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, according to Tamaulipas state chief prosecutor Irving Barrios. By the time the Americans were found, Woodward and Brown had been killed.
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Jose Guadalupe N., 24, stood guard at the house where cartel members held captive and tortured the four Americans. (Getty)
Survivors McGee and Williams were transported to Brownsville, Texas with a law enforcement escort over the Veterans International Bridge. They were taken to Valley Regional Medical Center in Brownsville to receive treatment.
Williams had been hit in the left leg, but his injury was not life threatening, Tamaulipas governor Américo Villarreal said.
The fourth victim was not injured.
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A Red Cross worker closes the door of an ambulance carrying two Americans found alive after their abduction in Mexico. (AP Photo)
The four South Carolina Americans had crossed the southern border to allow McGee to have a tummy tuck operation, according to relatives.
They were crossing from Brownsville to Matamoros on Friday and had just entered Mexico when their vehicle was shot at. The group had come under fire in a shootout between rival cartel gangs.
A member of the Mexican security forces stands next to a white minivan with North Carolina license plates and multiple bullet holes at the crime scene where gunmen abducted four US citizens who entered Mexico from Texas. (AP Photo)
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Gunmen believed to be members of a Mexican drug cartel forced the victims into the back of a white truck at gunpoint, with two of the victims looking injured or dead as their bodies were dragged across the sidewalk.
Guadalupe is the only person so far arrested in connection with the kidnapping and murder of the Americans, but investigators are still looking for other assailants.
The FBI had offered a $50,000 reward for the return of the victims and the arrest of the kidnappers.
