Texas authorities are warning Americans, especially those planning spring break trips, toꦗ avoid Mexico after the recent uptick in violence t💃hat left two dead.
“Drug cartel violence and other crimina𒆙l activity represent a significant safety threat to anyone who crosses into Mexico right now,” Steven McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said in a statement.
Lt. Chris Olivarez of the DPS Saturday that the ꦫdepartment was gearing up for spring breakers wh🧸o might be seeking to cross the border.
“Right now it is too dangerous with the increase in violence and kidnappings that are taking place in Mexico,” Olivarez said, adding, “I can’t stress enough to those that are thinking about traveling to Mexico, especially for spring breakers … to avoid those areas as much as possible.”
The State Department has also issued a level four travel advisory — its most severe — to avoid four Mexican states.
In the latest disturbing incident, two sisters from Texas and a friend who crossed the border into Mexico last month to sell clothes at a flea 🐻market have not bꦐeen heard from in about two weeks, authorities said Friday.
The FBI said it was aware sisters Maritza Trinidad🧸 Perez Rios, 47, Marina Perez Rios, 48 and their friend, Dora Alicia Cervantes Saenz, 53, have gone missing.
The sisters are from P🦩eñitas, a small border city in Texas near McAllen.
The women were said to be traveling in a green mid-1990s Chevy Silverado to a flea m🐼arket in the city of Montemorelos, about a t𒆙hree-hour drive from the border.
News of their disappearance came a week ♉after fo💞ur South Carolina residents were kidnapped in broad daylight in Matamoros on March 3.
They had travel෴ed to Mexico so one of them, 35-ye🔯ar-old Latavia “Tay” McGee, could get a tummy tuck.
McGee and Eric ღJames Williams, 38, were found four days after they were grabbed off the street, injure♎d but alive in a shack east of Matamoros.
They were taken to a ♚medical center in Brownsvill🅘e, Texas.
Their two friends, Shaeed Woodard, 33, and Zindell 🅷Brown, in his mid-20s, had been shot dead.
A 33-year-old Mexican woman caught in the crossfire during the kidnapping was also killed.
Six people have been arrested in connection wi🌺th the kidnapping and murders.
The Scorpion group of the region’s Gulf cartel turned over those they felt were responsible along with an apologetic note that said the five accused kidnappers “acted under their own deci♓sion-making and lack of🌱 discipline” when they ambushed the victims.
Olivarez said the cartel’s move to give up its own members was simply a way to divert attention from the organization.
“In most cases, when these tragedies take place, no one’s left alive,” he said.