Federal authorities have rescued a United States woman who had been held prisoner for more than a year in Culiacán by the Sinaloa Cartel.
According to officials, the unidentified woman had been moved around to various safe houses controlled by the cartel in the Sinaloa capital since she was kidnapped in February 2020. They said the woman was in good health.
They did not offer a motive for her kidnapping nor say if the woman’s family had been contacted to pay a ransom.
The federal Attorney General’s Office, working with a police task force on organized crime and navy personnel, rescued the woman Monday at one of the cartel’s safe houses after a federal judge issued search warrants for three buildings that authorities demonstrated had links to criminal activity.
The woman was found in the first building searched. The rescue went smoothly with only one shot fired, the Attorney General’s Office said. A man was arrested at the scene.
Authorities found a man with a gun in the second building and arrested him as well before proceeding to the third location where a woman was found with 243 grams of heroin and weighing scales.
All three are suspected members of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Sources: Diario Contra Réplica (sp), Milenio (sp)
