Murderous Gulf Cartel linked to kidnapping of four Americans are seen in video interrogating dealers
A terrifying video captured the moment members of the vicious Mexican cartel that is being linked to the kidnapping of four Americans last week, including two who were killed, lined up four suspected drug dealers and two buyers.
The images appeared in late February and show a member of the Gulf Cartel’s Escorpión Group interrogating the six people.
The heavily armed masked narco could be seen with a military rifle strapped to his chest and questioning the four men and two men, who had been arrested in a buy and sell of crystal methamphetamine along the northeast border region in Matamoros, Tamaulipas. .
The traffickers, two men and two women, appear in the video kneeling next to each other with their hands tied behind their backs with a group of members of the feared armed wing of the cartel behind them.
The shoppers, both men, knelt at the end of the line.
A member of the Escorpión Group of the Gulf Cartel questions six people who were allegedly involved in the sale and purchase of methamphetamine in Matamoros, Mexico. The merchants, two men and two women, and the shoppers, two men, were questioned in a video shared online before their execution. It is unknown if they were killed or released.
Two men (left and right) suspected of selling drugs are questioned by a member of the Scorpion Group, an armed wing of the notorious Gulf Cartel. The criminal organization has a strong presence in the border city of Matamoros, in northeastern Mexico.
Each of the dealers confessed to selling methamphetamine. One of them, a 56-year-old man, revealed that he had obtained the drug supply from him and brought it from Monterrey, the capital of the nearby northeastern state of Nuevo León.
The masked cartel member then berated the six dealers and buyers for selling and buying drugs.
“The Scorpion Group does not allow the sale of methamphetamine or fentanyl here at the border,” he yelled.
He then asked them if, ‘Are you sorry?’ before they answered, ‘yes sir’, in unison.
McGee had traveled to Mexico to undergo a tummy tuck before a drug cartel kidnapped her at gunpoint on Friday.
McGee was joined by her cousin, Shaeed Woodard, (left) and her friends Eric Williams (right) and Zindell Brown.
Mexican authorities identified José ‘N’ as the person who was arrested at a rural hideout where kidnapped US victims were being held before being rescued Tuesday morning. Under due process law, authorities always withhold the last names of criminal suspects.
The cartel thug continues to issue a stern warning to anyone involved in the sale and purchase of drugs.
“To all those consumers and sellers of crystal and fentanyl, no forgiveness, sincerely the Grupo Escorpión Gulf Cartel.”
It is unknown if the merchants and shoppers were allowed to walk around or if they were executed.
Once again, the cartel grabbed headlines after members were seen on video kidnapping four North Carolinians in Matamoros last Friday.
Latavia ‘Tay’ McGee, a mother of five, had traveled by car to Mexico for her ‘tummy tuck’ surgery.
She was joined by her cousin Shaheed Woodward and her friends Zindell Brown and Eric James.
The group was intercepted by cartel henchmen in broad daylight and forced into the back of a pickup truck.
On Tuesday morning, security forces located McGee and James, who was shot in the left leg, at a hideout about six and a half miles away in the rural town of El Tecolote.
McGee is seen sitting on the ground after the kidnappers opened fire on the vehicle in which she and three other US citizens were traveling moments after they entered the Mexican border city of Matamoros.
Pictures from the moment of their capture have started circulating online showing the group in the back of a vehicle.
The bodies of Woodward and Brown were found dead in the house, where a suspected cartel member identified Jose, whose responsibility it was to care for the Americans, was arrested.
One of the surviving victims told Mexican security forces that the cartel members had confessed to having confused them with another group they were attacking, the newspaper El Universal reported.
During a press conference Tuesday afternoon, officials said they were looking into what role José played in the cartel kidnapping.
The Gulf Cartel has been around since the 1930s and has a strong presence in Matamoros.
Lativa ‘Tay’ McGee was found unharmed after she, her cousin and two friends were kidnapped. The mother-of-five was spotted shoeless after surviving the tragic incident along with her friend Eric Williams, who was shot in the left leg.
Mexican authorities said Mcgee’s cousin, Shaeed Woodard, and his friend, Zindell Brown, were killed. Their bodies were found in the safe house along with the two survivors.
The criminal organization got its feet wet smuggling alcoholic beverages and other prohibited products into the United States during the Prohibition era.
Once the ban on the sale of alcohol was lifted, the cartel turned to auto theft, gambling, prostitution rings, and bootlegging.
In the 1980s, the group became involved in drug trafficking under the leadership of Juan García.
Through its connections to the Colombian Cali Cartel, the Drug Enforcement Administration estimated that the Gulf Cartel generated around $10 billion in profits. Fortune magazine once placed Garcia’s net worth at $15 billion.
Garcia made the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list in 1995 and was arrested at a Monterey ranch in 1996. He was later convicted by a federal court in Texas and sentenced to 11 consecutive life terms.