The remains of five musicians, who were part of a Mexican regional music ensemble and had been reported missing, were discovered in the northern city of Reynosa, located along the Texas border, according to authorities on Thursday.
The musicians from the band Grupo Fugitivo, which played at parties and local dances in the region, had been reported missing since Sunday.
Prosecutors from Tamaulipas state, who had been looking into their disappearance, reported that the individuals were abducted around 10 p.m. while they were traveling in an SUV, en route to a venue where they had been scheduled to perform.
Their bodies were found on the fringes of Reynosa.
Prosecutors said nine suspects believed to be part of a faction of the Gulf Cartel, which has strong presence in the city, have been arrested.
Authorities were not immediately able to say why the men were slain, and did not deny reports by local media that the bodies had been burned.
The musical style they performed, Mexican regional music, includes a broad array of genres such as corridos and cumbia. This style has recently been experiencing a resurgence on the international stage, garnering renewed attention and popularity.
Young artists sometimes pay homage to leaders of drug cartels, often portrayed as Robin Hood-type figures.
It was not immediately clear if the group played such songs or if the artists were simply victims of rampant cartel violence that has eclipsed the city.
But other artists have faced death threats by cartels, while others have had their visas stripped by the United States under accusations by the Trump administration that they were glorifying criminal violence.
The last time the musicians were heard from was the night they were kidnapped, when they told family members they were on the way to the event.
After that, nothing else was heard of them.
Their disappearance caused an uproar in Tamaulipas, a state long eclipsed by cartel warfare. Their families reported the disappearances, called on the public for support and people took to the streets in protest.
On Wednesday, protesters blocked the international bridge connecting Reynosa and Pharr, Texas, later going to a local cathedral to pray and make offerings to the disappeared.
Reynosa is a Mexican border city adjacent to the United States and has been plagued by escalating violence since 2017 due to internal disputes among groups vying for control of drug trafficking, human smuggling and fuel theft.
This case follows another that occurred in 2018, when armed men kidnapped two members of the musical group “Los Norteños de Río Bravo,” whose bodies were later found on the federal highway connecting Reynosa to Río Bravo, Tamaulipas.
