A group of gunmen in South Texas kidnapped two victims and held them in the border city of Brownsville, Texas. The gunmen tortured them for days over the alleged theft of drugs.
This week, Brownsville Police arrested 55-year-old Gilberto Moises Cancino, 20-year-old Kristopher Alejandro Lerma, and 17-year-old Cris Angel Aguilar on two charges of aggravated kidnapping and two charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. A city municipal judge set a bond for Cancino and Lerma at $650,000 and a bond of $400,000 for Aguilar.
The incident began earlier this month when two men escaped from a stash house and ran to a nearby home asking for help. According to Brownsville Police, authorities responded to a home on the 200 block of Ash Street over a call of trespassers. When police arrived, they noticed the two men showed signs of severe torture.
During questioning, the two men claimed to have been kidnapped and that they were being held at a home on the 200 block of Shary Street. Authorities revealed that the two victims were held inside a bathroom and would be repeatedly beaten and burned with boiling water.
The two men had reportedly been kidnapped over allegations they had stolen drugs. The information released by Brownsville Police does not mention the amount of drugs or if the case is connected to the Gulf Cartel, which operates in the region.
As Breitbart Texas reported, the kidnapping comes at a time when Brownsville has been hit by a wave of cartel-connected car thefts where the stolen vehicles are given to the Gulf Cartel as the criminal organization needs to resupply its gunmen who have been waging various turf wars with rivals.
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.