U.S. Woman Held Captive by Sinaloa Cartel Rescued in Mexico After a Year

By Mary Anne Webber First Posted: Mar 12, 2021 03:12 AM EST

Police and military forces in Mexico have managed to rescue a woman with U.S. citizenship held captive by the Sinaloa Cartel for more than a year.

The Attorney General's Office said the U.S. citizen had been moved around to several different safe houses since she was kidnapped in Culiacán in February last year, Mexico News Daily reported.

The safe houses, also located in Culiacán, allegedly belonged to the Sinaloa Cartel. Officials noted that the woman was in good health.

Reports said the African-American woman, whose name was not revealed by authorities, spent 13 months with Sinaloa Cartel members. It was unclear whether the kidnappers asked relatives for ransom.

According to a Vallarta Daily report, agents from the Federal Ministerial Police, Secretary of the Navy and the Criminal Investigation Agency found the woman in the first building they went into. The kidnap victim was reportedly being watched by someone identified as Óscar "G."

During the rescue operation, only one firearm shot was fired, and three suspected members of the Sinaloa Cartel were arrested. Aside from Óscar "G," the Prosecutor's Office identified the other arrested members of the Sinaloa Cartel as Luis "C," and Ericka "Q."

Cartels' Kidnappings in Mexico

Kidnapping in Mexico has been on the rise since 2005, which is largely triggered by the drug trades and an increase in the number of criminal gangs, according to a World Nomads report.

Authorities said the drug cartels are choosing kidnappings to get high volume, low reward income compared to long-term hostage-ransom incidents.

Last September, two men in Texas were kidnapped by Mexican Gulf Cartel members and took them to Mexico, where they were tortured for days and forced their relative to pay for a seized drug load, Breitbart News reported. The two men experienced being tied up and being beaten with wooden boards.

The Gulf Cartel released the victims after days of being held captive. They returned to Texas, and it remained unclear if their families paid the ransom.

Last May, four individuals were also reportedly kidnapped in the border city of Progreso for a $500 debt owed to a commander in Mexico.

The state of Coahuila has become known to be the center of the kidnapping crisis in Mexico due to the huge presence of organized crime in the area. It accounts for 42 percent of the country's abductions, according to a DW report. Families in Coahuila have become part of search operations doe with local police and investigators.

"In Coahuila alone, authorities have 120,000 human remains and only 20 of them have been properly identified," Grace Fernandez of civil group FUNDEC said in the report.

Fernandez noted that these remains are rarely identified since there is a lack of means and trained professionals to carry them out, and the labs are usually occupied.

Humberto Guerrero, who handles human rights at the research center Fundar, said there have only been 12 sentences handed down in over 37,000 missing persons' cases. Guerrero believed that officials' collusion and active participation in the said crimes could result in a low conviction rate.

WATCH: Mexican Cartels' Kidnapping Tactics - From Stratfor