The Federal Bureau of Investigation is asking for help in locating an Arizona teenage female and her mother who are believed to have been kidnapped while traveling in northern Mexico. The kidnapping is believed to have occurred along a stretch of highway where the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas has abducted dozens of innocent victims who have never been heard from again.
U.S. authorities are working with their Mexican counterparts to locate 17-year-old Jessica Garcia Rojo and her mother 56-year-old Juana Marcela Rojo who went missing shortly after crossing from Laredo, Texas into Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, information provided to Breitbart Texas by the FBI revealed. Garcia Rojo was born in Phoenix, Arizona. She and her mother have family ties to Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey.
The women are believed to have been traveling to Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, in a white Dodge Caravan with New Mexico license plates, when they went missing shortly before 9 p.m. on May 15. Relatives reported them missing on May 28.
As Breitbart Texas reported, the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas controls the area between Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey. That hyperviolent criminal organization has been responsible for hundreds of forced disappearances in recent years. In addition to the kidnappings, the CDN-Los Zetas routinely set up highway checkpoints where they extort travelers and kidnap those who are unable to pay.
The ongoing violence and number of kidnappings led officials to call the highway connecting Monterrey and Nuevo Laredo the “Highway of Death.” In 2023, Mexican Senator, a state congressman, Waldo Fernandez called for government officials to put aside political differences and work to ensure public safety in the region, Breitbart Texas reported.
Despite Fernandez’s efforts, Mexican authorities have done little to stop the reign of terror that the CDN-Los Zetas and other cartels have spread through northern Mexico.
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.