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Woooosh
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20 TOURISTS kidnapped in Mexican resort city of Acapulco
It's not Baja, but it's def not good. These 20 men, aged 17 and up-worked in a tire alignment shop and saved their money every year to take a
vacation together. First time I can recall tourists being specifically targeted. One man when into a shop and when he came out they, and the cars
were gone. Let's hope it stays off Baja and these tourists are found alive (although with less vacation time to enjoy).
By SERGIO FLORES, Associated press Writer – 52 mins ago
ACAPULCO, Mexico – Gunmen kidnapped 20 men who were traveling together in Mexico's Pacific coast resort city of Acapulco, authorities said Saturday. A
shootout between drug gangs, meanwhile, left 14 people dead in remote town in the northern state of Durango, Mexican newspapers reported.
The group of men in Acapulco was visiting from the western city of Morelia and looking for a place to stay when they were abducted Thursday, said
Fernando Monreal, director of state investigative police in Guerrero state, where the resort city is located. He said the kidnapping was reported by
a man who had been with the group. The man told police that he and another fellow traveler had left the others to go a store and when they returned
their companions were gone.
Witnesses said the men — who ranged in age from 17 to 47 — were kidnapped by an armed gang that drove them away in the four cars in which the group
had been traveling. Police later found the cars abandoned near the kidnapping site. The motive was unknown. The man who notified police described his
companions as tourists. He said they all worked for the same tire-alignment company in Morelia and saved up each year to take vacations together.
Monreal said police have been unable to locate the man since he reported the kidnapping Friday. The man left a cell phone but was not answering it,
Monreal said. Acapulco has been a key battleground for lucrative drug-trafficking routes. Violence in the region increased this year after a split in
the Beltran Leyva cartel, whose leadership has been hit hard by President Felipe Calderon's drug war. Police, who were scouring the resort cities and
the highways leading out of it for the missing men, gave no indication that they were tied to drug trafficking.
Drug-gang henchmen frequently kidnap rivals and dump their bodies on the streets days later. But it is rare for a survivor of such kidnappings to go
to the police. The shootout between rival drug-dealing gangs broke out Friday morning in the town of San Jose de la Cruz, El Universal and Reforma
newspapers reported, citing the Durango state attorney general's office. Police and soldiers traveled to the town after being alerted by residents,
Ruben Lopez, a spokesman for the office, was quoted as saying. It often takes authorities hours to travel to the scene of shootouts in Durango, a
mountainous state that has long been a stronghold for Mexico's most powerful drug traffickers.
Nobody answered the phone Saturday at the state attorney general's office.
\"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing\"
1961- JFK to Canadian parliament (Edmund Burke)
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JESSE
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It appears the "tourists" where in reality members of la familia drug cartel from Michoacan.
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sanquintinsince73
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| Quote: | Originally posted by JESSE
It appears the "tourists" where in reality members of la familia drug cartel from Michoacan. |
Exactly what I was going to suggest, Jesse. Most kidnappings aren't random. When I had "green light" on me it wasn't random, they thought I was rich.
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Mexray
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That story sould be headlined....
...visitors to Mexico Beware...
How may stories have we read in recent years that begin with lines similar to:
(insert the name of your favorite Mexican city here) has been a key battleground for lucrative drug-trafficking routes
These stories, along with the increase in violence along the US's southern border, caused in most part by foreigners that have no regard for our laws,
have given us cause to forgo any future plans to spend any of our time or $'s in Mexico, probably ever again!
Lets not get into all the 'whys' of the drug trade here - I know demand in the north creates the business of 'supply' in the south, yada, yada,
yada...
I'm talking strictly about the violence factor that's increasingly being directed at foreigners visiting Mexico...sure one could be 'knocked off' by a
scumbag here at home - BUT - with all the really bad press about Mexico's problems - why temp fate even more when traveling for fun?
We've come to appreciate many of the great things there are to see and explore here at 'home'; we've got lots of friendly people in small towns and
villages here too; spreading some of our 'tourist' $'s around here at home might help the economy in these areas as well!
We have beaches, mountains, sunsets and warm weather up here as well - you just have to search them out, abet with a few more people nearby...!
We've loved the warm waters, clean air, soft sandy beaches, friendly people we've met, cool tequila drinks as the sun sets in all it's splendor in
many Mexican regions, for over 40 years - but alas, I fear that part of our traveling life is over...Good bye, dear 'friend'...
Ray
[Edited on 10-3-2010 by Mexray]
According to my clock...anytime is \'BAJA TIME\' & as Jimmy Buffett says,
\"It doesn\'t use numbers or moving hands It always just says now...\"
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toneart
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| Quote: | Originally posted by JESSE
It appears the "tourists" where in reality members of la familia drug cartel from Michoacan. |
Jesse,
Where are you getting your information. The TV news reported it this evening as tourists, traveling together.
If you are correct, then I wonder how the story got twisted
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Woooosh
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Maybe they were on a narco-tour? Once this story came out, the damage to tourism was done- true or not. And once a crime this large is committed- no
one believes what the gov't tells them. The families will have the truth.. either they were tire shop employees on their annual vacation, or they
weren't.
\"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing\"
1961- JFK to Canadian parliament (Edmund Burke)
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David K
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"The group of men in Acapulco was visiting from the western city of Morelia and looking for a place to stay when they were abducted Thursday"
Is it too un-PC to say Mexicans in Mexico... where they on a tour or touring? A sure way to get readers,anyway!
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Woooosh
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| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
"The group of men in Acapulco was visiting from the western city of Morelia and looking for a place to stay when they were abducted Thursday"
Is it too un-PC to say Mexicans in Mexico... where they on a tour or touring? A sure way to get readers,anyway! |
I didn't think of that as being particularly strange. Mexico is a big country and a large group of men looking for a hotel in a tourist destination
does seem logical- if not very ill-planned. Maybe their Michoacan license plates stuck out or someone saw them going hotel to hotel and mistook the
outing as a rival cartel group. It would only take one front-desk clerk to call a friend of a friend for the local narcos to mobilize quickly against
this group. If they were narcos, not tourists- they would have had guns ready and it would have been a gunfight, not a mass abduction. This happened
Thursday and the news tonight said the Mexican gov't was the source who said they were tourists- which isn't normal either. At this point there will
be no truth- unless the families know something. Even the survivor (the one who called police) is missing/hiding now- or simply won't answer his cell
phone...
[Edited on 10-3-2010 by Woooosh]
\"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing\"
1961- JFK to Canadian parliament (Edmund Burke)
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David K
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Hope they are okay!
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Woooosh
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| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
Hope they are okay! |
That would be a nice change, but they are most surely dead already. Even if it was mistaken identity- there are rarely any witnesses.
[Edited on 10-3-2010 by Woooosh]
\"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing\"
1961- JFK to Canadian parliament (Edmund Burke)
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tjBill
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Now people in the US are going to start asking Nomads, "Aren't you worried about going to Mexico after those 20 tourists were kidnapped?" 
[Edited on 10-3-2010 by tjBill]
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sanquintinsince73
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There is more than meets the eye here. We will probably never know. As a former target of secuestradores, kidnappings are almost always never random.
They know who they are coming for and why.
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oxxo
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I feel like I'm asking a dumb question because the answer seems obvious, but these were Mexican "tourists" not gringos on tour, right? Seems odd that
20 Mexican men would be kidnapped. For what reason? Mexican guys working in Mexican tire shops have lots of money? Jesse's conclusion seems the
logical answer. Anyway, the story, whatever the reason, will further gringo paranoia about traveling in Baja.
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DENNIS
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Twenty Two enemy combatants wandering around behind the lines looking for a place to hang out?
Total BS.
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woody with a view
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we're leaving friday at 4am. everyone else stay home!
| Quote: |
Anyway, the story, whatever the reason, will further gringo paranoia about traveling in Baja.
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[Edited on 10-3-2010 by woody with a view]
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BajaDove
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Some off the wall gang of kidnappers looking for prey stumbles onto twenty men and has the facilities to take them without getting caught
SPONTANIOUS? i don't think so
Sounds planned and well exicuted .
It doesn't make me paranoid, just ready to duck if I see too many people in one place.
If its not where it is, its where it isn\'t.
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bajaguy
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22 men, from a tire alignment shop in Morelia are tourists???
I find it hard to believe that any business would let 22 of it's employees take a "vacation" at the same time....and it must be a somewhat large tire
alignment shop to have 22 employees.........but, hey, it is Mexico
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jeans
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| Quote: | Originally posted by BajaDove
It doesn't make me paranoid, just ready to duck if I see too many people in one place. |
I would agree there...can't be too cautious in noticing your surroundings. While driving in Tijuana recently on my way to the dentist, I found myself
in traffic next to a black Explorer with blacked out windows.  We were heading
in the same direction. I peeled off and doubled back around the block. 
Mom always told me to be different - Now she says...Not THAT different
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Woooosh
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| Quote: | Originally posted by jeans
| Quote: | Originally posted by BajaDove
It doesn't make me paranoid, just ready to duck if I see too many people in one place. |
I would agree there...can't be too cautious in noticing your surroundings. While driving in Tijuana recently on my way to the dentist, I found myself
in traffic next to a black Explorer with blacked out windows. We were heading
in the same direction. I peeled off and doubled back around the block.
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Good for you for being alert and taking passive defensive action (on BOTH sides of the border). We prevailed in an armed carjack attempt in TJ a few
months back by being alert and being able to get away. I don't let anyone block me in anywhere.
I'm tempted to believe the "Mexican tourist" version for a couple reasons. The first is the owner of the tire shop was with the group, the second is
they weren't armed or there would have been a gunfight instead of a kidnapping. Narcos don't get caught flat-footed like that in "enemy territory".
I got a call from my sister in CT last night regarding this- so it's too late for tourism damage control. If the gov't doesn't get a grip on thsi-
our area could be next.
Twice a week pangas are being caught smuggling humans and drugs from Popotla (I presume) to San Diego. Another one just last night. The commandante
of the PGJE in Rosarito was executed over human smuggling from Popotla just a month ago, yet it continues like before. There just isn't the will to
stop it or the Mexican Navy doesn't have any boats. Either way this cancer is spreading and it looks malignant.
\"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing\"
1961- JFK to Canadian parliament (Edmund Burke)
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desertcpl
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| Quote: | Originally posted by bajaguy
22 men, from a tire alignment shop in Morelia are tourists???
I find it hard to believe that any business would let 22 of it's employees take a "vacation" at the same time....and it must be a somewhat large tire
alignment shop to have 22 employees.........but, hey, it is Mexico |
I was thinking the same thing also,
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