According to U.S. authorities, two sisters from Texas and a friend who crossed into Mexico last month to sell clothing at a flea market are still missing in Mexico.
A green Chevy Silverado from the mid-1990s was being driven by Maritza Trinidad Perez Rios, 47, Marina Perez Rios, 48, and their friend Dora Alicia Cervantes Saenz, 53, to a flea market in the city of Montemorelos, in the state of Nuevo Leon. It takes about three hours to get there from the sisters’ hometown of Peitas, a small border town in Texas close to McAllen.
Very few specifics have been made public. When it comes to protecting the American people, the FBI “relentlessly pursues all options, and this doesn’t change when they are in danger across the border,” according to the FBI, which stated that it is “unable to provide comment on this ongoing investigation.”
The three women’s whereabouts, which have remained unknown for about two weeks, have received only a small amount of media attention.
Their families have contacted the Mexican authorities, who are looking into their disappearance, according to Peitas Police Chief Roel Bermea.
According to Bermea, U.S. Customs and Border Protection claims that the three women entered Mexico on February 24. The Rio Grande is only a few hundred feet away from Peitas.
According to the police chief, one of the women’s husband had a phone conversation with her while she was traveling in Mexico, but he became worried when he couldn’t get through to her after that.
Since he was unable to communicate over the weekend, he came in on Monday and informed us, according to Bermea. Since then, no one has heard from the three women.
The women, according to Bermea, were driving to a flea market in the city of Montemorelos, in the state of Nuevo Leon, in a green Chevy Silverado from the mid-1990s. From the border, it takes about three hours to get there. According to representatives of the state prosecutor’s office, an investigation into the women’s disappearance has been ongoing since Monday.
Four Americans were shot and taken hostage last week while traveling to Matamoros in the Tamaulipas state of Mexico. The group lost two members, and two others were sent back to the United States. Officials have reported that a Mexican national was also killed after being hit by a stray bullet.
A law enforcement official with knowledge of the situation told NBC News that the friends had made the trip to Mexico because one of the women in the group was looking to have a cosmetic procedure. The official claimed that cartel gunmen mistakenly targeted the group.
Five people were detained on Friday after the Gulf cartel apologized on Thursday.
The government response and search for the four Americans is in contrast to efforts to locate 112,000 Mexicans missing nationwide, many of whom are being searched for only by their desperate relatives.