Police found the bodies of several band members in a well in northern Mexico. The band and their crew were abducted last week at gunpoint following a performance.
According to Reuters, four of the bodies have been identified. All of the men were wearing shirts with the band's name "Kombo Kolombia." They were all shot dead.
One of the band members was able to escape, but it was not clear how or whether he was injured. He spoke to police and said the armed captors asked the men if they belonged to an organized crime gang. When the members refused to answer, they were killed. The man who escaped fled from Mexico after he reported the attack to police and showed them where he was taken.
A total of 12 bodies have been found out of the 18 men who were abducted on Thursday in a bar near Monterrey. Twelve of the abducted were musicians and the rest were likely crew members.
"Presumably there could be more bodies so we will extend the search as far as conditions allow it," Jorge Domene, a spokesman for the Nuevo León government said, according to Reuters.
"This was a direct attack," Domene said, according to the New York Times. "It was not random."
According to the New York Times, it is not rare for drug gangs to kill musicians, especially those that play narcocorridos which glorifies the criminal underworld. This type of music often offends armed listeners and it has even been banned in some cities due to the violence it causes.
However Kombo Kolombia didn't play that kind of music.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto is on a mission to reduce the criminal violence that grew after Felipe Calderon, launched an assault on drug cartels in December 2006. According to Reuters, about 70,000 people have been killed in drug-related crimes.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
