Russell Fry Outraged over Kidnapped Americans: Mexican Cartels’ ‘Rampant Illicit Activity’ Affects Every State

Rep. Russell Fry (R-SC) spoke out about the four Americans recently abducted in Mexico, revealing at least one of them is from his district and emphasizing that border states are not the only ones affected by Mexican drug cartels’ “rampant illicit activity.”

Fry, a freshman member of Congress, made the revelation after U.S. and Mexican authorities confirmed on Tuesday, per Breitbart News’s Texas team, that a Gulf Cartel cell operating in Matamoros, a city just over the border, was responsible for killing two of the four Americans amid the violent kidnapping.

Fry said:

It is heartbreaking to hear about the tragic killing of two of the four Americans abducted in Mexico. I want to share my deepest condolences with the victims’ family members and loved ones as they grieve.

Thank you to all those involved in working to bring them home. Our office is in contact with federal agencies and the family of one of the abducted Americans who lives in our district. We are supporting them in every way we can.

Latavia “Tay” McGee, Shaeed Woodard, Zindell Brown, and Eric Williams had crossed into Mexico through Brownsville, Texas, and, according to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, were traveling for medical purposes.

The names of which two were killed had not been made public at the time of this publishing.

The four individuals had grown up in South Carolina together and “were bonded ‘like glue,’” Brown’s sister Zalandria told CNN.

Fry represents South Carolina’s Seventh District in an eastern section of the state that includes Myrtle Beach.

In the wake of the abduction and killings, Fry warned that the Mexican drug cartels, which the Drug Enforcement Agency deems “the greatest criminal drug threat” to the U.S., “wield more power than ever before.”

“This horrible incident sheds more light on the violence that stems from their rampant illicit activity that impacts not only our border states but my home state of South Carolina,” Fry said.

He added, “We cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the deadly cartel activity that’s happening right across our southern border and taking American lives.”

Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com. Follow her on Twitter at @asholiver.