Cancun, Q.R. — Seven people who were reportedly being held against their will have been found by local police. Six Brazilians and one Mexican were located along a Cancun highway after being released by their captors.
The group of five men and two women were located Monday night after they were abducted approximately 12 hours earlier by a group of armed men from central Cancun.
The abducted group said their vehicle was intercepted by two taxis after boarding an Uber outside a Cancun bus station earlier that day. The six Brazilian tourists (four men and two women) and their Mexican driver were then taken away in separate vehicles to a criminal safehouse in the outskirts where they were assaulted, robbed and eventually freed.
Four of the victims were transferred to a Cancun hospital while the other three were taken to the Secretariat of Citizen Security (SSC) to file an official report.
In a statement Tuesday afternoon, the State Attorney General (FGE) said “In the investigations carried out by the Special Prosecutor’s Office in Combating Kidnapping and Extortion Crimes, the rescued, five men and two women, requested a digital platform transportation service, when they were intercepted by two taxi units, on Pino Street and Avenida Tulum.
“The attackers loaded the driver into another vehicle, to take him, along with the victims, to an abandoned area on López Portillo Avenue where they beat them and stole their belongings as well as cash, and then left them in that place where they were rescued by elements of the Benito Juárez Secretariat of Citizen Security and Traffic.
“Due to these events, the Prosecutor’s Office Specialized in Combating Kidnapping and Extortion Crimes opened the respective Investigation File for the probable commission of the crime of aggravated kidnapping against whoever is responsible.”
