ALL FOUR KIDNAPPED AMERICANS HAD LENGTHY RAP SHEETS; BORDER WATCHERS QUESTION RAPID U.S.-MEXICO RESPONSE

American victims in Mexico. From left to right, deceased Shaeed Woodard, survivor Latavia "Tay" McGee, survivor Eric James Williams, and deceased Zindell Brown in undated images.

By Greg Woodfield and Aneeta Bhole

Daily Mail.com

Newswek
Various Sources

Border residents and reporters  – inured to kidnappings and violence in the northern states of northern Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon  – were taken aback with the swift response by U.S. federal authorities and Mexican officials to the kidnapping of four U.S. citizens in Matamoros by the notorious criminal and drug syndicate Gulf Cartel a week ago Friday.

"What's going on here?," asked a former law enforcement officer who was active in the Mark Kilroy spring breaker homicde investigation.  Kilroy was abducted by a satanic group in March 1989. "We had three women who went missing on the road from Los Indios Bridge to Monterrey and they were American citizens which didn't elicit this kind of response."

"Then there were the three sibling who were also american citizens who were arrested near Progreso, in northern Tamaulipas in 2014 and no one did anything until their bodies were found 16 days later dumped on a rural road and their cases are still open today," he said.

"What was the difference? Even the president of Mexico touched on the disappearance of the four people last Friday during his morning press conference. Why not on the others?"

Newsweek reported back in January 18, 2018 that the three U.S. siblings found dead in Mexico in 2014 were executed by Mexican marines and a border mayor's paramilitary security team, according to the country's National Human Rights Commission said in January .

Erica Alvarado Salinas, 26, Alex Alvarado, 22, and Jose Angel Alvarado, 21, all American citizens, disappeared on while visiting their father in El Control, a small town near Matamoros, a Mexican city in the dangerous state of Tamaulipas, across the border from Brownsville, Texas. So far, no one has been charged in their deaths and neither the FBI nor the Mexican PGR offered a reward in their case at the time.

And that same year, 2018, two brothers – both U.S. military veterans – disappeared in Matamoros and were never found. Victims of violence in Matamoros and other large border cities of Tamaulipas often go uncounted because the cartels have a history taking bodies of their own with them. Local media often avoid reporting on such episodes out of safety concerns, creating an information vacuum.

But in the case of the missing Americans, just two days after their abduction last Friday, a $50,000 reward was offered for information leading to the capture of the men who were responsible for the kidnapping of Latavia McGee, Eric Williams, Zindell Brown and Shaeed Woodard. The four were found in a rundown stash house near a place known as La Lagunona in the ejido El Tecolote – about six-and-a-half-miles from where they were taken. Brown and Woodard didn't survive.

DailyMail.com revealed that Williams was previously busted for "distributing crack near a school," while McGee has been slapped with "unlawful conduct towards a child," when her daughter tested positive for amphetamines.

Woodard was charged with the "manufacturing and possession" of drugs and pleaded guilty, while Brown was also charged for "possession of marijuana or hashish."

The Daily Mail reported that Williams was jailed for 18 months in March, 2017, after being busted 12 months earlier for "distributing" crack cocaine near a school, his arrest affidavit obtained by DailyMail.com reveals.

He was caught in a sting by a confidential informant working for Lake City police department in South Carolina and nailed by video evidence.

Williams was charged with two counts – distribution of cocaine base around March 1, 2016 and distribution of cocaine base within proximity of a school.

Lake City police Major Patrick Miles wrote on the first court arrest report that Williams "did, while on Carver Street in the city limits of Lake City, willfully and unlawfully violate the South Carolina Drug law.

"The defendant did distribute a quantity of crack cocaine to a confidential informant working with the Lake City Police Department."

On the second count report, he added: "This violation did occur within a half mile radius of Ronald E McNair Junior High School… and was in session at the time of this incident."

Williams was given credit for 60 days time served from his sentence. He pleaded guilty to the two counts, resulting in other indictments against him not being prosecuted.

These included another charge of distributing cocaine on March 1, 2016 to the same informant, with a further charge that this was near the high school.

Another indictment was that on June 3, 2016, Williams possessed crack cocaine with intent to distribute it near a school.

His arrest affidavit for the latter charges read that he was seized for '"outstanding narcotic distribution warrants" and had in his possession "a  prescription pill bottle with 50 Adderall pills… the bottle did not have the defendant's name on it."

The list continued: "several small plastic bags containing a white rock like substance which filed test positive for cocaine base which was recovered from the defendant."

Williams was also charged with having a loaded .22 caliber handgun in his right rear pocket while he was being frisked in a Lake City street for weapons in September, 2015. The affidavit said: 'The defendant is a convicted felon and is prohibited from possessing any firearm or ammunition by state law."

It added: "This incident did occur in the yard of 345 Scott Street, a location that the defendant does not reside at and a location that officers have received numerous complaints of drug activity and

prostitution."

Kidnap survivor Latavia Washington McGee was indicted on March 3, 2016 on five counts of unlawful conduct towards a child, a daughter who was eight at the time.

The arrest warrant said the girl tested positive for drugs on March 2, 2016 after a sample of her hair was collected for analysis after social services became involved in the child's welfare.

It stated: 'The child tested positive for amphetamines, cannabinoids, and native THC (marijuana).'

The five counts said Washington placed the girl at "unreasonable risk of harm, affecting the child's life, physical or mental health or safety."  Washington was given an original sentence of five years in jail, which was suspended. She was then given a credit of two served at the State Department of Corrections, put on probation for three years and made subject to random drug and alcohol testing at least four times a year.

Shaeed Woodard, who was killed in the horror, had lengthy drug charge sheet with records showing he pleaded guilty to drugs manufacture or possession in September 2015 and was sentenced to 100 days in January 2016 – which was taken as time already served.

Woodard also spent 72 days in jail in 2009 for his part in a burglary after admitting scaling the roof of a building with two others and getting into a store in East Main St, Lake City in January of that year.

His original sentence for third degree burglary was no more than five years in the State Department of Corrections under South Carolina's Youthful Offenders Act, which was reduced to 18 months on probation with 72 days of time served taken into account. He was also ordered to have weekly drug and alcohol tests for the first six months.

But in October of 2009, Woodard found himself in trouble again for receiving stolen goods with a value less than $1,000. He admitted the offence and in April, 2010 was sentenced to 180 days in the Florence County Detention Center, which he had already served.

His rap sheet also included: 

*An accusation of a violent burglary in July 2007 was handled with a Nolle Pro ruling, meaning it was abandoned.

* In March, 2008 he was arrested for having marijuana. Several other drugs allegations were dismissed and not indicted.

* He was also accused in the September 2015 of a catch-all charge of distributing, selling or manufacturing a controlled substance near a school, which was dismissed.

Zindell Brown, who was also killed, was accused of domestic violence in the first degree in July 2019, which was determined as Nolle Pro, which means abandoned.

* A domestic violence charge in the second degree from the same date was remanded to the magistrates family court in Florence, South Carolina. The count alleged that he attacked a "household member' Terrane Moore by "wrapping a phone cord around her neck and strangling her with it, impeding her breathing and airflow, and causing lasting physical injuries.

* A previous domestic violence in the second degree accusation a year before was dismissed and not indicted, according to court documents.

The nightmare trip to Mexico had been for McGee's cosmetic tummy tuck surgery with relatives claiming the group traveled together to share the driving load.

Brown and Woodard's bodies were repatriated back to the U.S. on Wednesday from a Forensic Medical Service morgue in Matamoros. When rescued McGee was seen barefoot and covered in dirt – the trauma of the incident evident on her face. She survived the ordeal with Williams who was shot in the left leg, according to Mexican officials, the others did not survive.

Mexican officials said they believe the incident could have been a case of "mistaken identity" and could be connected to the notorious Gulf Cartel'who are prominent in the region.

At least one person has been arrested in connection with the incident and the surviving Americans were taken to the border near Brownsville, Texas, in a convoy of Mexican ambulances and SUVs on
Tuesday. They were then delivered to U.S. consulate officials. Five men allegedly belonging to the cartel were delivered to Matamoros authorities Thursday, apparently by Los Escorpiones, a faction of the Gulf Cartel and left a note that blamed them for the kidnapping calling them "undisciplined

In a press conference on Tuesday afternoon the Governor of Tamaulipas, Américo Villarreal Anaya, who broke news of the two surviving Americans at a separate press conference in the morning, confirmed the identity of the one person previously arrested who was found at the house guarding the prisoners.

"During the three days after the criminal act, the four people were transferred to various places, including a clinic in order to create confusion and avoid rescue work," he said.

Tamaulipas State Attorney General Irving Barrios said that information related to the kidnapping surfaced online and that videos and pictures shared by people helped in the rescue.