Five kidnapping victims freed in SLRC; nine arrested
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Son. – Five people previously reported kidnapped or missing here have been freed, and nine suspects have been arrested in connection with their abductions.
The kidnap victims were freed and the suspects arrested after Mexican national guard soldiers, backed up by municipal and Sonora state police, closed in on a home on the city’s southwest side shortly before midnight.
Shots were fired at the soldiers, leading prosecutors to seek additional charges of attempted murder and illegal weapons possession against some or all of the suspects, police said.
There were no injuries reported in the incident, but the soldiers and police seized a number of guns and rounds of ammunition at the home.
Eight of the nine arrested are natives of the Sonora cities of Navojoa, Nogales, Cajeme and Huatabampo, and one is from Mexico’s Sinaloa state, the Sonora state attorney general’s office said in a social media post.
Neither the suspects nor the kidnapping victims were identified, but police said four of the five were reported abducted or missing in March. The victims are receiving medical care including psychological counseling, the attorney general’s office said.
Seized at the home were three AR-15 assault rifles, .223-caliber rounds for those rifles, .45-caliber ammunition, a shotgun, three bulletproof vets and several vehicles, police said.
The rescue came on the heels of a three-month period in which San Luis Rio Colorado led the state of Sonora in kidnappings, with 40, and had the second-highest number of homicides, 55.
Authorities link most of the slayings and abductions to narcotics trafficking and organized crime.