Texas Teen Reported Missing in Mexico While Visiting Border State

Authorities in Mexico are searching for a teenager from Texas who went missing while visiting relatives in the border state of Tamaulipas. The disappearance comes at a time when Tamaulipas has become one of the most violent states in Mexico due to raging cartel violence and the perceived failure of state and federal officials to address it.

A government spokesman confirmed to Breitbart Texas that the Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office is investigating the disappearance of 18-year-old Jose Rodolfo Najera Olvera from Brownsville, Texas.

The teenager is a U.S. citizen who was in Ciudad Victoria visiting relatives when he went missing on June 10. According to information provided to authorities by relatives, the teen and another friend were driving a Volkswagen Passat to a rural community called El Roble, just East of Ciudad Victoria when they went missing.

The disappearance comes just days after, as Breitbart Texas reported, a group of Gulf Cartel gunmen kidnapped five men from the Dominican Republic who were legal U.S. residents and were traveling by car to the state of Veracruz.

In March, the Gulf Cartel kidnapped four U.S. citizens in the border city of Matamoros. In that case, two of the victims died during the ordeal. As Breitbart Texas reported, the Gulf Cartel used an ambulance from the city of Matamoros to move the victims and took them to a clinic used by the cartel to treat their gunmen. Days later the Gulf Cartel left the victims and a caretaker in a stash house and also surrendered five cartel gunmen. Since then, the six cartel members are the only ones that have been arrested and charged in connection with the case.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.