Drug War Bloodshed: Mass Graves Raise Concerns About Brazen Gangs Kidnapping Mexican Migrants

Mass Graves Raise Concerns About Brazen Gangs Kidnapping Mexican Migrants - NYTimes.com: "They were young men, traveling by bus to work in the fields and factories of northeastern Mexico, or perhaps hoping to get across the border to a job in the United States. Somewhere along the way, they vanished.

The discovery this week of 72 bodies dumped in mass graves in a no-man’s-land about 85 miles south of the United States border may offer a terrible answer to the mystery of what happened to at least some of the missing men. They were forced off the buses at gunpoint, perhaps kidnapped for ransom or press-ganged into drug cartels, officials say. ... what it suggests is that criminal gangs operating south of the Texas border in Tamaulipas State have become so bold that they now target innocent victims in full view of witnesses. ...

Migrants crossing through Mexico have long been vulnerable to kidnapping because they are fearful of going to the authorities. But now, the bus kidnappings suggest that the gangs operating in Tamaulipas, which has become a battleground between the Zetas and their former bosses in the Gulf Cartel, have begun to target Mexicans."