Five members of the band Grupo Fugitivo were thought to have been cartel victims after their bodies were discovered in the Texas border city of Reynosa.
According to Mexican media, the group, which plays regional music, vanished on Sunday after arriving at a location where they were contracted to perform. They were discovered dead on Thursday.
According to Tamaulipas state prosecutors, the men were abducted while driving an SUV on Sunday night at around ten o’clock.
They did not refute rumors from the local media that the men were burned, but they also did not provide details about the state of the bodies or the reason behind their deaths.
Nine people have been taken into custody in the investigation, according to prosecutors, and are thought to be affiliated with a portion of the Gulf cartel.
According to reports, family members received requests for the musicians’ ransom, and they said that after being paid to perform, they arrived to discover a deserted land.
It is unclear whether the group performed the kind of music they did, but it is a genre in which musicians occasionally honor drug cartel leaders who are represented as Robin Hood-like characters.
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Musicians have already received death threats from cartels, and the Trump government has revoked the visas of several of them on the basis that they promoted criminal violence.
Musicians have occasionally been the target of cartels that pay artists to write and perform songs that exalt them. They have also occasionally been involved in gang turf wars.
In an attempt to combat the subgenre’s appeal to youth, certain areas have outlawed “narcocorridos.”
Since 2017, Reynosa has seen an increase in violence as various cartels have sought to take over the drug and people trafficking industries.
