Law&Crime Sidebar - ‘These Are Terrorists’: Cartel Sends Apology Note Blaming 5 Men for Abducting and Killing Americans

Episode Date: March 10, 2023

Four Americans heading to Mexico found themselves amid a shootout between rival cartels when they were abducted last week and later found on Tuesday -- two of them dead. Mexican authorities on Thursday found five men tied up with an apology note, putting blame on the men for abducting the Americans and saying it was “unauthorized” by the cartel. The Law&Crime Network’s Jesse Weber breaks it all down with Steve Murphy, the DEA agent who caught notorious drug trafficker Pablo Escobar. LAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergWriting & Video Editing - Michael DeiningerGuest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Vanessa Bein & Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. A cartel reportedly apologizes for the kidnapping of four Americans in Mexico and allegedly hands over the men responsible. Legendary DE agent Steve Murphy comes on to discuss this strange turn in the story. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Well, this was a twist that I did not see coming in the story of the four Americans

who were kidnapped by the cartel down in Mexico. Really sad story that we reported here on Sidebar. Four U.S. citizens drove from South Carolina to Matamoros, Mexico, for one of them to undergo a medical procedure. This was according to the local authorities. And these people are Latavia McGee, Zendell Brown, Sheed Woodard, and Eric Williams. And they were seemingly caught up in a gunfight. And maybe in a case of possible mistaken identity that the cartel thought they were Haitian drug smugglers, they were apparently kidnapped by armed men. And while McGee and

Williams survived and they were recovered and they're now back in the United States receiving treatment, Williams sustained leg wounds reportedly shot three times, sadly Brown. and Wardard died, and the remains were handed back to the United States officials. There's also a 24-year-old Mexican man who was apparently guarding the Americans. He was arrested. He's only been referred to as Jose N. We don't have a ton of information there. But now, when we were questioning, would the perpetrators of this crime ever be brought to justice?

What I will tell you, I didn't imagine, was the cartel actually turning these people over. That's right. photos have been released of five men bound in front of a truck with a handwritten apology letter. And in this note, the Scorpions faction of the Gulf cartel apologized to the residents of Matamoros, a Mexican woman who was apparently accidentally killed in the gunfire, the four Americans, and their families. So let me bring in DEA special agent, Steve Murphy.

Steve, along with his partner, Javier Pena, these are the men who took down Pablo Escobar. Their stories were actually featured in the hit show Narcos, so a lot of you probably know what I'm talking about here. You can check Steve out at the website www.d-a-narcos.com, and then there are Steve and Javier's book, Manhunters, how we took down Pablo Escobar. Autograph, personalized copies can be ordered through the website. They also have a worldwide keynote speaking tour where they talk about the true story regarding the downfall of Pablo Escobar. In fact, it's their eighth year doing this. You can check them also out

on their weekly True Crime Podcasts, Game of Crimes, Game of Crimes Podcasts.com. Steve, I know we had you on the other day. It's great to have you back on it as well. Really sad developments, but also weird developments. I want to start right now with the letter. I'm going to read you portions of it. So it says, quote, the Gulf Cartel Grupo Escorpionis strongly condemns the events of Friday, March 3rd, in which, unfortunately, an innocent working mother died and four American citizens were kidnapped, of which two died. For this reason, we have decided to hand over those involved and directly responsible for the events, who at all times acted under their own determination and in discipline and against the rules in which the CDG has always operated. They go on to say that

life, tranquility, and integrity of the innocent is to be respected. And they apologize. to the Society of Matamoros, the affected American individuals and their families. In addition, they say the CDG asks society to remain calm because we are committed to ensure that these errors caused by indiscipline aren't repeated. The guilty parties will pay regardless of who they are. Let me tell you, Steve, we're still trying to understand if this is, they're authenticating the letter, they're authenticating whether or not these people are the ones responsible. all, if this is all true, what do you make of it?

Just first of all, thanks for having me back. I'm as shocked as you are. And in fact, before we started recording here, made the statement. What really shocks me is that the five individuals that they say committed the attack against the four Americans were found alive. Fully expected the Gulf cartel to deliver dead bodies to the police or leave them so the police could find them and say, these are our sacrificial lambs. Of course, they wouldn't say that. But these are the people we say are responsible for the attack on the police. Americans. The apology letter, you know what, if you believe that, I've got some swamp land

here in Florida that I can put on the market for you. They want the peace and tranquility to continue. Are you kidding me? Madam Morris, Tomolipus is one of the most dangerous places in all of Mexico. If they want peace and tranquility, stop the murders down there. It's the history shows where they found the mass graves over the past, not that long, but past several years of people that have disappeared. I think the last I saw was there still a hundred and 12,000 Mexican citizens missing in Mexico that are suspected of being killed not only by the Gulf cartel, but the drug factions throughout there. That's the farthest thing from peace, calm, and tranquility I can think of. I just, I guess the proper word here would be ironic.

Yeah, I don't understand, not to sound grim, but I don't understand how, if these are the men who did it, they are alive. Because the first thought would be, well, what stops them from providing more information about the cartel and the top leaders to law enforcement? Of course, it could also be that did they know that they were going to be apprehended with some guarantees given to their families and loved ones? You're going to turn you over, but you say anything, you know, your families are in jeopardy. And I'm not sure the message that the cartel is trying to give here. I mean, they talked about cartel rules that these men violated the rules.

I don't know a better expression. Honor among thieves. I mean, what are those rules exactly? Well, we know there is no honor among thieves. The rules are what they say, what I say. what I say they are today as the situation develops. They change rapidly, frequently. I mean, whoever's in charge down there,

and there's indications that it's Jose Garcia Villano. I mean, who knows? The reason, I think the motivation why those guys might not cooperate is they told them, if you do cooperate, your families, your entire families will be wiped out. That was a tactic we saw with Pablo Escobar to get judges to and politicians to cooperate. The corruption is just out of,

control down in Mexico. We all know that. It's not a joke. It's not a secret. Mexican authorities will tell you that. Everybody except the president down there. Yeah. And I guess now I'm thinking about this and thinking about why they would have done it. Is it that you're not supposed to attack innocence? Are they trying to create a PR message? I mean, I don't know how they thought the response was going to be to this. I guess there's something to be said that if these are the men who actually did it, they're the trigger men. And if they acted on their own and were sloppy and they weren't supposed to target innocence. Correct me if I'm completely wrong, but is this similar to other organizations, criminal organizations, where you're not supposed to attack regular

citizens or innocent people? It's only supposed to be the people involved. Because I always thought when I look at some of these cartels, that collateral damage is collateral damage. It happens, and they never apologize for it. These are terrorists. They don't care. You know, Javier hit the nail in the head when we were on with you the other day. when he mentioned that the media was probably the force that brought so much attention to this so quickly because it started out on social media and then the media outlets started to pick it up and then eventually it got to the government and not both governments, US as well as Mexican government and it started quickly become an embarrassment because it was videotaped.

I'm not sure where that videotape came from. I don't know if it was a fixed camera at one of those buildings or if somebody actually recorded the video. I think somebody recorded it on one version. and I thought I heard people talking in the background. If they're living in the location where they recorded that from, I hope they've moved because cartels will go back and find them. You know, I mean, it's just, you're right, it is collateral damage. The lady was on the street.

And the fact that they really didn't even identify these four Americans, they saw a white van with U.S. plates from North Carolina and four black individuals in there. Since we had our conversation the other day, I've reached out to some of my friends down the board to find out what other things we could find out, you know, Is there other underlying themes here as to why they were down there? One theory we're hearing was that they were mistaken for Haitians.

And when I questioned that, apparently the Haitians are involved in human trafficking. And they're coming into Tamalipas there in Madame Orris area. And they failed to pay off the cartels for coming into their territory. You just don't go into these people's crime area and conduct business without their permission and then pay in the fee, whatever it is. I mean, look back when they were going to film the first season of Narcos, Mexico, they sent a scout down there to start scouting locations. He didn't get anybody's permission to go in there. And they found him, you know, shot to death in his car of multiple wounds. And again, it was a case of mistaken identity. But they don't take the time to find out

the identity. They start with force and then they figure it out afterwards. Maybe it's a change in leadership. Maybe it's a change in how they conduct business. I think it was really all the attention that was brought to this, right? So if nobody was talking about this, if this didn't make national headlines, do you think that these men would have been turned over and we would have seen this letter? No, not at all. And in fact, that's one of the points that's coming up now amongst the citizens of Tamalipus. Hey, well, this happens all the time. And all of a sudden these four Americans disappear and look at the response from the Mexican government. Why don't you respond like that when Mexican citizens go disappearing? You don't. It's a great question.

As we see how this is going to progress, I believe they're going to be extradited back to the United States, these individuals to face charges, what do you think is going to happen behind the scenes to confirm they are the shooters or the ones responsible? And how is this going to ultimately play out? Because they may be the trigger men, but they're not the people at top. So what do you think is happening behind the scenes right now? With that video footage, and now they'll have photographs of the five individuals that were turned over, they can do a comparison. And the technology is out there, even facial recognition, they can probably do a fairly adequate but comparison of the photographs to come up with a certain percentage rate of are these actually

the people? Yes, we believe 95% accuracy. This is, these are the people. Honestly, I think these are the lowest ranking members of this organization, the Scorpions organization, if they were held positions. Yeah, and by the way, what is the Scorpion organization? Do we know anything about them? It's one of the factions.

I've heard of the Cyclones. I've heard of Scorpions. And I think there's a third faction within the Gulf Cartel. As I understand that the scorpions are one of the most violent. That's what they're known for, which just makes it so ridiculous that they issued an apology letter. I think what they're apologizing for is they got caught. Is there any way we're looking at this a little too literally? Are they trying to make fun of it in a way?

I think they are. They're going to thumb their noses at the government. The fact that they're calling for calm and peace and tranquility is so ridiculous. When you look at all the violence, it takes place there on a daily basis, this isn't an isolated incident. It happens down there every day. And that's, that's so much of the concern of why Americans would go there to start with. You know, like we mentioned the other day, the State Department doesn't frivolously issue a level four, do not travel into this area. That's something that's, it's reserved for places like communist countries for Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, different,

you know, North Korea, places like that. The fact that people aren't listening to it, and as we mentioned, too, with spring break going on now, I'm just really concerned about it. especially our college kids going down there just to have a good time and going in naive and ignorant. Yeah, that's a great point. It's a scary situation. And I'll tell you, I believe the FBI is not responding to this latest development. They are going to confirm that these are the suspects. They're going to confirm the authenticity of the letter. One of the things to note is, I believe, the vehicle that was associated with these individuals where they were ultimately apprehended or found as a vehicle that police, you know, investigators were looking for. So if we talk about, whether or not these are the people involved. The fact that they were found with the car that investigators were looking for is a big point there. Steve, I want to talk with you more about this. Unfortunately, we ran out of a little time here, but I'd love to have you back to talk a little bit more about what is going down to Mexico, what the latest information we are hearing

is. So I'd love to have you and Javier back on if you have the time. Absolutely. Enjoy being with you, Jesse. Thank you very much. And that's all we have for you here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.