Police rescued 73 kidnapped people who were being held hostage in the Mexican border city of Reynosa for as long as four months.
The hostages were snatched while waiting for buses at terminals, CNN reported. About half of the group were from Central Americans, and it's highly possible that most of the victims were on their way into the United States. Mexico's National Security Commission released a statement shortly after the kidnapped group was recovered, detailing the raid.
Federal authorities on Monday followed a suspicious-looking vehicle that attempted to bypass cops nearby. Police followed the car up to a house where officers said "they could hear cries for help," according to the Commission's statement.
Within the walls of the shoddy residence sat 73 hostages: 37 Mexicans, 19 Hondurans, 14 Guatemalans and three Salvadorans. Six of the kidnapped people were minors. Some had been held in the house for months, while others had been taken in as recently as four days prior. The suspected kidnappers had called the victims' families for ransom payments, the Commission stated. A handful of the hostages reported being abused physically and sexually.
Police took the two men in the car into custody, along with a third person they stated was an alleged lookout.
The area of Reynosa has seen at least three large-scale kidnapping operations in the past year. Mexican police recovered a group of 81 migrants in July who said they'd been held against their will in Reynosa. One month before, law enforcement officials reported to CNN that 165 kidnapped workers were rescued from a small town nearby.
According to the Associated Press, migrant kidnappings are common in this area of northeastern Mexico - a place that is largely run by the Zetas and the Gulf drug cartels. Three years ago, the Mexican government said that the Zetas were responsible for the mass killings of 72 migrants in the north.
