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AUTHORITIES SAY THE BODIES OF FIVE MEMBERS OF A MEXICAN MUSIC GROUP HAVE BEEN FOUND AFTER THEY WENT MISSING - NINE ALLEGED MEMBERS OF A CARTEL HAVE BEEN ARRESTED 21:58, 30 May 2025 The
bodies of five of a Mexican music group have been found after they were reported missing. Reports that the band Grupo Fugitivo had gone missing emerged on Sunday and they were later found by
authorities in the city of Reynosa, Mexico, close to the Texas border with the US. The men were kidnapped while travelling to play at a venue in an SUV, according to prosecutors in the
state of Tamaulipas. The group disappeared at around 10pm on Sunday night and their bodies were later found on the outskirts of Reynosa. Prosecutors have said there are nine alleged suspects
believed to be part of the Gulf Cartel. The nine have been arrested. Authorities were not immediately able to say why the men were slain, and did not deny reports by local media that the
bodies had been burned. The genre they played – Mexican regional music, which encapsulates a wide range of styles including corridos and cumbia – has in recent years gained a spotlight as
it's entered a sort of international musical renaissance. Young artists sometimes pay homage to leaders of drug cartels, often portrayed as Robin Hood-type figures. It was not
immediately clear if the group played such songs or if the artists were simply victims of rampant cartel violence that has eclipsed the city. But other artists have faced death threats by
cartels, while others have had their visas stripped by the United States under accusations by the Trump administration that they were glorifying criminal violence. The last time the
musicians were heard from was the night they were kidnapped, when they told family members they were on the way to the event. After that, nothing else was heard of them. Their disappearance
caused an uproar in Tamaulipas, a state long over shadowed by cartel warfare. Their families reported the disappearances, called on the public for support and people took to the streets in
protest. On Wednesday, protesters blocked the international bridge connecting Reynosa and Pharr, Texas, later going to a local cathedral to pray and make offerings to the disappeared.
Reynosa is a Mexican border city adjacent to the United States and has been plagued by escalating violence since 2017 due to internal disputes among groups vying for control of drug
trafficking, human smuggling and fuel theft. This case follows another that occurred in 2018, when armed men kidnapped two members of the musical group “Los Norteños de Río Bravo,” whose
bodies were later found on the federal highway connecting Reynosa to Río Bravo, Article continues below _FOR THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS AND STORIES FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE FROM THE DAILY STAR,
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