Authorities continue to look into how two men were shot in a house where Mexican cartel gunmen had been holding three Mexican immigrants for ransom.
The shooting took place early Thursday morning when San Antonio Police responded to a house on the 5400 block of Stonybrook Drive, information confirmed to Breitbart Texas by San Antonio Police revealed. When authorities arrived to the scene, they discovered the body of a man and a second shooting victim. Authorities also discovered that three men were being held for ransom at the home.
San Antonio CBS affiliate KENS5 reported that 22-year-old Ramiro Lopez was taken to a local hospital for a gunshot to his hand. He is facing a felony charge of aggravated kidnapping.
Lopez, the deceased victim, and a third man, who has yet to be arrested, were reportedly holding three men from Mexico for ransom at the house. The three kidnapping victims allegedly told authorities that they were kidnapped by Mexican cartel members from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico, smuggled into the country, and then taken to the house in San Antonio. Once there, the men were forced to call relatives to ask for ransom payments.
On Friday, the Starr County Sheriff’s Office, working alongside the Texas Rangers, arrested 22-year-old Lisandro Lopez from Rio Grande City in connection with an ongoing kidnapping investigation. It remains unclear if the arrest and raid in Rio Grande City (RGC) is connected with the kidnapping case in San Antonio. Authorities raided Lopez’s house while serving a search warrant tied to a triple kidnapping investigation. Starr County Sheriff’s Command staff confirmed to Breitbart Texas the search of the residence but stated that additional information could not be revealed because of the ongoing investigation.
Breitbart Texas consulted with local politicians who claimed that Lopez is the son of Municipal RGC Court Judge Leo “Pino” Lopez and Letty Lopez, a member of the RGC Independent School District Board. Lisandro Lopez has previously arrested in connection with drug charges. That case remains pending.
While court records filed in the San Antonio kidnapping and murder case do not reveal the criminal organization, Nuevo Laredo is considered a main battle ground for two rival factions of the Los Zetas cartel. As Breitbart Texas has been reporting, the Cartel Del Noreste (CDN) faction of the Los Zetas has been fighting with the Vieja Escuela Z faction. Various cells within the Gulf Cartel have sided with the Vieja Escuela faction in an attempt to take over CDN territories. The ongoing fighting has resulted in almost daily kidnappings, executions and gun battles throughout Mexico’s northeastern states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon and Coahuila.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.