Mexican cartel apologized for kidnapping four Black Americans

Source: Hector Vivas / Getty

While this news current cycle is particularly unhinged, there is one story in particular that has captured people’s attention and today we got news of another completely unexpected plot twist.

You have likely heard about the four Black folks from South Carolina who were kidnapped by the cartel in Mexico after driving across the border from Texas. According to CNN, Latavia Washington McGee, Eric Williams, Shaeed Woodard, and Zindell Brown drove cross-country to go south of the border to at city called Matamoros so that McGee could get a medical procedure done cheaply. She never made that appointment. On Friday, March 3, the group was shot at by gunmen who subsequently surrounded them and took them away.

The United States government believes that the group was mistaken for Haitian drug runners. Woodard and Brown were found dead, McGee and Williams were found alive but Williams was shot twice in one leg and once in the other. None of the four has any criminal history whatsoever.

Source: Hector Vivas / Getty

Here’s where the plot twist comes into play.

According to a VICE report, the Scorpions group, a subsidiary of the notorious Gulf Cartel that has commandeered control of northeast Mexico for decades, has come forward (kinda) to claim responsibility for the attack and…apologize. This morning, an apologetic letter was found alongside 5 men who were severely beaten and tied up face down in the back of a pickup truck under a narco flag.

“The men responsible for these actions acted under their own will and lack of discipline against the CDG [Gulf Cartel] rules. We apologize to the family of Miss Arely and the rest of the American families,” the banner signed by the Scorpions and Gulf Cartel said.