44 kidnap victims freed in Mexico

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — Dozens of kidnap victims were freed in a series of raids by soldiers and federal agents, the most dramatic results yet in a crackdown on crime and corruption in this border city, investigators said Monday.

The 44 people freed Sunday — including many found with their eyes covered with tape — told authorities they were kidnapped by police officers in Nuevo Laredo, a city of 350,000 across from Laredo, Texas, or by members of the Zetas, a gang led by former soldiers who became drug hit men and are blamed for a rash of killings and violence along the Mexico-U.S. border, said Deputy Public Safety Secretary Rafael Rios.

Some of the victims had been held up to three months, at least one had been tortured and was taken to a hospital. None of those rescued had been reported missing or was the subject of a ransom demand, Rios told a news conference in Mexico City.

Deputy Attorney General Gilberto Higuera said those rescued were apparently "involved in criminal activities and were not victims of kidnappings" for ransom.

U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza, a vocal critic of growing border violence, praised the raids and said he hoped Americans missing in the border city "will be found safe and sound," though none were apparently among those rescued.

The raids on Sunday stemmed from a federal crackdown on crime along the border that followed the June 8 slaying of Nuevo Laredo's police chief and the detention of the entire police force.

Tipped off by a suspect taken into custody on the sidewalk out front, more than 200 federal agents and soldiers raided a safe house in southern Nuevo Laredo late Sunday afternoon, Rios said.

They exchanged gunfire with assailants and freed a group of people before moving on to a second and third safe house in the area. Authorities also seized two vehicles with Texas plates, two machine guns and a bag of marijuana.

The suspect arrested outside the first home, as well as two other people who served as guards were arrested on kidnapping charges and are also being investigated for links to drug smuggling gangs, Rios said.

He said no charges have been filed against any of the 38 men and six women rescued, but they were being questioned by authorities in Nuevo Laredo and will eventually be flown to Mexico City for further investigations.

Higuera said some of the captors may have hidden themselves among the rescued.

Rios and Higuera said that some of those freed may have been abducted because they were loyal to rival criminal syndicates. Nuevo Laredo has been the center of a brutal territorial war between two smuggling gangs.

U.S. officials have complained that some U.S. citizens have been caught up in the kidnappings in northern Mexico, though most cases appear to involve drug trafficking disputes.