State police patrolling on Christmas Night rescued a kidnapped woman in the border city of Reynosa. The motive for the abduction remains unknown.

Authorities came up to the Rancho Grande neighborhood on the northwest side of the city, where they spotted a Ford Expedition exiting the Caracoles neighborhood, information released by state officials revealed. When the driver of the SUV spotted police, he turned and fled the area.

Police tried to chase the vehicle, but the driver managed an escape. Authorities began to search for the vehicle and were able to find it abandoned shortly after at an intersection. Inside they found a blindfolded and bound woman. She told authorities was kidnapped. Police also found a rifle, two vests with ballistic plates, and an ice chest containing makeshift road spikes.

Reynosa is controlled by the Gulf Cartel, a violent organization overseeing the area’s drug trade and human smuggling operations. The Gulf Cartel also kidnaps migrants and regular citizens for profit. The criminal organization has also been waging a fierce turf war with a rival faction of the Gulf Cartel from Matamoros.

Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to Mexico City and the states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities.  The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “J.C. Sanchez” from Tamaulipas.