Mexican gang kidnaps officials to force detained member's release
The gang seized the officials shortly after a high-ranking member was detained, demanding he be released.
Mexican gang kidnaps officials to force detained member's release
A Mexican gang seized three officials in the central state of Morelos on Monday in an effort to pressure authorities into freeing one of the gang's senior members, who had been detained hours earlier.
The attorney-general's office in Morelos said it had arrested a member of the Pueblos Unidos criminal gang after carrying out a raid as part of its campaign against extortion.
Pueblos Unidos responded by abducting three people who work for the attorney-general's office and holding them hostage.
In a statement, the office said it had released the detained suspect to protect the lives of its staff, but emphasized that the kidnapping of its employees would not go unpunished.
The gang freed all three employees on Monday evening local time, the statement added. One was taken to hospital with a gunshot wound but was in a stable condition.
According to the statement, the decision to release the detained gang member followed official guidelines stating that the lives of kidnap victims must come first.
Criminal gangs in Mexico often unleash a wave of violence in an attempt to force a release after one of their leaders is arrested.
In 2019, hundreds of gunmen from the Sinaloa cartel poured into the city of Culiacán in northern Mexico after the arrest of Ovidio Guzmán, the son of the cartel's notorious founder, Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.
They set up burning roadblocks and fought deadly gun battles with security forces.
The violence was so severe that the president at the time, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, personally ordered Ovidio Guzmán's release.
López Obrador said he had issued the order "so as not to put the population at risk".
"The capture of a criminal is not worth more than people's lives," he added.
Guzmán was recaptured in 2023 and extradited to the United States.
More recently, the killing of one Mexico's most wanted criminals, Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera, in February of this year sparked retaliatory attacks from his cartel in 20 Mexican states.
President Claudia Sheinbaum sent thousands of soldiers to the affected states to quell the violence.