Texas officials have warned against traveling to Mexico

News

as if Melissa Klein

March 11, 2023 | 7:54 p.m

Texas officials are warning Americans, especially those planning spring break trips, to stay away from Mexico in the wake of recent violence that has left two dead.

“Drug violence and other criminal activity now represent a significant security threat to anyone crossing into Mexico,” Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said in a statement.

DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez told Fox Saturday that the department is preparing for spring break-ins who want to cross the border.

Olivarez added that “with the increase in attacks and kidnappings that are happening in Mexico right now, it is very dangerous,” adding that “People who are thinking of traveling to Mexico, especially for spring defenses… avoid these areas as much as possible.”

The State Department has issued a level four travel advisory to avoid four Mexican states — the most severe.

In the latest tragedy, two sisters and a friend from Texas who crossed the border into Mexico last month to sell clothes at a flea market have not been heard from for two weeks, officials said Friday.

The FBI says it knows sisters Marita Trinidad Perez Rios, 47, Marina Perez Rios, 48, and their friend Dora Alicia Cervantes Saenz, 53, are missing.

The sisters are from Peñitas, a small border town near McAllen, Texas.

The women were said to be driving a mid-1990s green Chevy Cillado to a flea market in the town of Montemorelos, a three-hour drive from the border.

News of their disappearance comes a week after four South Carolina residents were kidnapped in broad daylight in Matamoros on March 3.

One of them, 35-year-old Latavia “Tay” Magee, could have had a stomach shot because they had traveled to Mexico.

McGee and Eric James Williams, 38, were found injured but alive in a cabin east of Matamoros four days after they were taken off the road.

They were taken to a medical center in Brownsville, Texas.

Two friends, Shaid Woodward, 33, and Zindel Brown, both in their mid-20s, were shot and killed.

A 33-year-old Mexican woman who was involved in a fight during the abduction was also killed.

6 people have been arrested in connection with the kidnapping and murder.

The regional Gulf group issued a statement of apology saying it believed the Scorpion group was responsible and that the five accused hijackers “acted with a lack of discretion and discipline” when they targeted the victims.

Olivarez says the cartel’s move to abandon its own members is simply a way to change the focus of the organization.

“In most cases, when these tragedies happen, no one survives,” he said.