Gunmen Hold U.S. Family Hostage at Mexican Border State Hotel

Gunmen claiming to be former Mexican military tried to kidnap members of a Texas family visiting the border state of Nuevo Leon this week. The incident took place at a Holiday Inn on one of the main avenues in the Monterrey Metro.

According to statements made by the victim’s father who asked to not be named, the family from Texas had driven to Monterrey on vacation and planned to spend the week sightseeing and shopping.

On the day of the kidnapping, the parents went out to pick up dinner and left their teen daughter at the hotel with her younger siblings. Soon after, they got a call from a man who claimed to be a Mexican military officer who told him that he and his men had his children and they would be killed unless a ransom was provided.

The father suspected that the hotel staff was either involved or threatened. When he returned, the hotel front desk was abandoned and no one came out until authorities arrived. Police rushed to the room and had a standoff with the kidnappers until they surrendered.

Authorities only arrested one of the gunmen identified as 42-year-old “Francisco” from Veracruz, a former Mexican military officer. It remains unclear what happened to the other suspects.

Nuevo Leon has been seeing a dramatic spike in violence in recent months partly due to a violent turf war between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas. The issue is further worsened by criminal infiltration of the Fuerza Civil state police force.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.