OR Case by Gruque Fugitivo – where five members of the musician were abducted and then found dead While they were going to play at an event – not the first to shock the Mexico. In 2018, two members of the band The northern Rio Bravo They were abducted by armed people and found themselves murdered on the Federal Motorway connecting Reinosa with Rio Bravo, a city on the northern border of Tamoulipas state in northeast Mexico.
As in the recent case with the assassination of members of the Grupo Fugitivo music band, the musicians headed to a scheduled appearance when they were attacked. Their corpses, observed on the side of the road, were a tragic reminder that being a musician in Mexico can prove to be deadly dangerous.
Two different but nightmares similar cases where Mexican tradition encounters the killing of the cartels.
Aim because they sing?
Although it is not always clear whether artists are targeted for their repertoire – which often includes Narcocorridosthat is, songs that praise or describe cartel leaders as folk heroes – the frequency of attacks reveals a more complex problem: musicians become easily victims, either because of publicity or because they are “in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
In some cases, artists have been threatened or even seen their visas canceled by the US on the grounds that they are promoting criminal culture. But others – like Gruppo Fugitivo – just never returned home.
With the authorities avoiding clear answers to violence against musicians and cartels almost uncontrollably, the families of the victims are turning to public support with demonstrations, prayers and road blockages.
Grupo Fugitivo: Five dead musicians in Reinosa
Five Grrupo Fugitivo band members were found dead on the outskirts of Reinosa, near the Texas border. The musicians had disappeared a few days earlier – They were missing from Sunday (25.05.2025) while heading to a site where they were hired to play at an event.
According to the Tamulipa prosecutor’s office, the five men were abducted while in SUVs around 10pm. Their corpses were found with traces of abuse, and local media reported that they had partially burned. Nine suspects arrestedallegedly as members of the infamous vaginal cartel.
Neither the motives for the murder, nor the exact circumstances have been clarified. The only sure thing is that the musicians paid with their lives the journey into a city where the control of drugs, immigrants and fuel cartels have turned daily life into a Russian roulette.
The beginning of the end for their 5 men aged 20 to 40 years old It took place on Sunday (25.05.2025) when they went to a bar in the Reinosa border to play music.
Arriving at Reinosa, the artists found that the point where they had been indicated to them There was no bar but an empty plot of plotaccording to members of the families of the victims, who alerted the authorities to their disappearance.
Sister of one of the musicians, who asked not to be named for security reasons, said he received telephone calls of strangers who blackmail after their disappearance.
Tamaulipas prosecution confirms that fugitive group members were kidnapped and killed https://t.co/gLSNXQdhzN
– Urban news Puebla and Tlaxcala (@urbano_noticias) May 30, 2025
He also said he mentioned to the authorities the theft of 2 cars belonging to the band members.
Members of the families and musicians from other bands organized a demonstration on Wednesday in front of the City Hall in Reinosa, before blocking for some time of the bridge connecting the Mexican city with Farm, Texas.
Tamulipas (a state where the musicians were found) is considered a stronghold of extremely cruel mafia, including the Gulf cartel, who is probably behind the abduction and murder of the musicians.
The state of Tamulipa records more than 11,000 missing people in total, according to official data from the National Register of Mexico (RNPDNO). It is one of the highest proportional concentrations of missing in the country.
Vaginal cartel is one of 8 gangs of Latin America – Among them 6 Mexican – signed in February by the US President’s government Donald Trump In the black list of foreign “terrorist organizations”.
The kidnappings increase rapidly. Only in 2024, more than 280 incidents reported, with most perpetrators remain unattended. The music community and transport drivers are at the top of the “Risk List”.
The overwhelming majority of crimes in Tamulipa remain without any conviction, resulting in the administration of justice being a more ghost.