Mexican officials reported that two of the four Americans kidnapped in Mexico were found dead, while two are alive. One is severely injured.
The two survivors are now back in the U.S., while the two deceased remain in a morgue in Matamoros, Mexico, a city across the border from Brownsville, Texas, where the kidnapping took place.
Investigators believe the Americans were mistaken for Haitian drug smugglers by a Mexican cartel.
The group traveled from South Carolina to Mexico so one of them – a mother of six – could undergo a medical procedure across the border, two family members said. Once across the border, they were fired upon by unidentified gunmen, “placed in a vehicle and taken from the scene by armed men,” according to the FBI.
Latavia “Tay” Washington McGee, 33, drove to Mexico with Shaeed Woodard, Zindell Brown and their friend Eric Williams for a cosmetic surgery.
Lindsay Graham told Jessie Watters on Fox News on Monday that he plans to introduce legislation to allow the U.S. to use military force against drug cartels in Mexico. Graham suggested listing the drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 71,238 deaths from fentanyl in the U.S. in 2021. This is a 23 percent increase from the 57,834 fentanyl-related deaths that occurred in 2020. In 2019, more than 36,000 deaths occurred in the U.S. from fentanyl.
Fact checkers have found no evidence to Republican claims that Biden’s border policies have resulted in an increase of fentanyl deaths.
In 2022, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that Trump suggested firing missiles into Mexico to take out drug labs.
“We could just shoot some Patriot missiles and take out the labs, quietly,” Trump said, according to Esper’s book.