PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Coahuila — State authorities are preparing for the trial of a woman tied to a kidnapping group that struck in this border city between 2013 and 2014. By day, many of the accused kidnappers worked as police officers.
Investigators with the Coahuila State Prosecutors Office continue investigating the case of a kidnapping cell led by Juan Jose “El Lala” Martinez Solis and Hector Ortiz Estrada. The men, in their time, worked as local police officers and the personal guards for the now-fired Public Safety Director Jose Antonio Campa Arredondo. The group operated between 2013 and 2014 kidnapping numerous victims from both sides of the border. The kidnappers demanded ransoms of up to $150,000 USD ($3 million Pesos) for the return of their victims.
The most recent kidnapping took place when Coahuila agents arrested Rosa Estefani Ballones Rodriguez, aka Rosa Maria Ballones Rodriguez. The woman has been singled out as the one who would collect the ransom demands for the kidnapping group. Police arrested Ballones on a warrant issued in July for the charge of aggravated kidnapping.
The arrest warrant comes after an investigation into the June 2014 kidnapping of a man from Eagle Pass, Texas, and his girlfriend who were targeted for a ransom kidnapping.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “J.M. Martinez” from Coahuila.