[Sharon]

Police in Mexico are searching for a band of 20 musicians and roadies who went missing after a gig.



Kombo Kolombia, who are Mexicans but play Colombian-style vallenato music, last played a private gig in Hidalgo, north Mexico, but have not been seen or answered their mobile phones since.

"They were not answering their mobile phones, but we just thought it was because they were in a remote place," said family member Jose Ruiz.

"We started to look for them, and we found their cars open and empty, and neither they nor their instruments were at the farm where they were scheduled to play."

Police confirmed that the band has not been seen or heard from since Thursday.

A number of musicians have been kidnapped and murdered by drug gangs in Mexico over the last few years.

In 2007 Sergio Gomez, singer in the band K-Pax, was kidnapped and strangled to death.

Hours after denying reports of his murder, Sergio Vega, known as El Shaka, was shot dead while driving his red Cadillac.

Most of those murdered were narcocorridos, who sing songs celebrating the lives of drug barons.

Among them is Diego Rivas, who was shot dead in 2011 after composing a song in praise of Joaquin Shorty Guzman, Mexico's most wanted drug baron.

The missing band play Colombian music, not usually linked to drug gangs, but local media report that the venue of the band's last gig does have links to drug violence.

Last year conductor and pianist Rodolfo Cazares, music director of the Bremerhaven City Theatre in Germany, was kidnapped while visiting relatives in Mexico. He has not been seen since. Fears are growing that he may have been murdered by a drug gang.

Last year more than 70,000 people died in drug-related violence in Mexico, prompting President Enrique Pena Nieto, who was sworn in last December, to set-up a new national police force to tackle organised crime.

So far, 8 bodies have been located down a well in the town of Mina, Nuevo Leon.




Investigations continue.

[kellyhound]

probably dead, beheaded and what not

[Sharon]

Originally Posted by kellyhound ↗

probably dead, beheaded and what not

Aye, they'll all be made into Mr Potato Heads or strung up under a bridge with their instruments up their rectums

[Faline]

[bdjackass318]

I am going to Mexico this thursday to visit my god parents. wish me luck.

[AmericanIllusions]

Heartless bastards with no code what so ever. Back in the day gangsters and other guys in the criminal life didn't bother law abiding citizens. Hope they find these guys safe.

[MrCorpse]

Hope these La Cucaracha's turn up in an entertaining video soon

[Seven Of Nine]

Originally Posted by Sharon. ↗

Aye, they'll all be made into Mr Potato Heads or strung up under a bridge with their instruments up their rectums

Laughing at this ^^

[DiamondSmiles]

If I don't like an entertainer or band, I just don't go and pay them.

[candymosh]

Surviving band member leads police to bodies

Posted: Jan 28, 2013 1:26 AM CST Updated: Jan 28, 2013 6:27 PM CST
By PORFIRIO IBARRA
Associated Press

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) - The 16-member Colombian-style music group was playing at a ranch in northern Mexico when at least 10 gunmen entered the warehouse where the private party was being held and forced them and four crew members into waiting vehicles, a survivor of the attack told authorities.

Nuevo Leon state security spokesman Jorge Domene said the survivor, a member of the Kombo Kolombia band, told police they were blindfolded and driven on dirt roads until they stopped and he heard gunshots and a conversation about where the assailants would dump the bodies.

Domene said the survivor, who is being protected by soldiers, was able to reach a nearby ranch and get help.

The man later led authorities to a well where searchers found several bodies, Domene said.

"Until yesterday, four bodies had been pulled (from the well) and all indicates that they belonged to this group," Domene told Radio Formula.

Domene said three of four bodies first pulled from the well were wearing T-shirt with the name of the band but that authorities were still waiting to officially identify them.

By Monday afternoon, searchers had pulled 10 bodies from the well along a dirt road in the town of Mina, about 140 miles (225 kilometers) from Laredo, Texas, said a forensic official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly on the case.

The bodies recovered showed signs of torture, the official said.

It was hard to determine how many more bodies were submersed in the water, he said.

Sixteen members of the band Kombo Kolombia and four crew members were reported missing early Friday after playing at a private party held at a ranch called La Carreta, or The Wagon, in the town of Hidalgo north of Monterrey.

People living near the ranch in Hidalgo reported hearing gunshots at about 4 a.m. Friday, followed by the sound of vehicles speeding away, said a separate source with the Nuevo Leon State Investigative Agency. He also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be quoted by the news media.

The officials added that gunfire is common in the area and said investigators found spent bullets nearby.

Relatives filed a missing persons report on Friday after losing cellular phone contact with the musicians. When they went to the ranch to investigate, they found the band members' vehicles still parked outside.

Kombo Kolombia has played a Colombian style of music known as vallenato, which is popular in working class neighborhood in the city of Monterrey and other parts of Nuevo Leon state. Most of the group's musicians were from the area, though the singer is a Colombian citizen with Mexican residency, Domene said.

The band regularly played at bars in downtown Monterrey on the weekend. At least two of the bars where they had played had been attacked by gunmen.

It was Mexico's largest single kidnapping since 20 tourists from the western state of Michoacan were abducted in Acapulco in 2010. Most of their bodies were found a month later in a mass grave. Authorities said the tourists were mistaken for cartel members.

Members of other musical groups have been murdered in Mexico in recent years, usually groups that perform "narcocorridos" that celebrate the exploits of drug traffickers. But Kombo Kolombia did not play that type of music, and its lyrics were about love and heartbreak and did not deal with violence or drug trafficking.

But singers of drug exploits are not the only musicians targeted, said Elijah Wald, author of the book, "Narcocorrido: A Journey into the Music of Drugs, Guns and Guerrillas."

"There is really not correlation. Drug guys hire people to play for their parties and they hire whatever is happening," he said. "Sergio Gomez, the single-most famous singer killed from K-Paz de la Sierra, his big hit was a version of 'Jambalaya.'"

Gomez was kidnapped and found strangled and tortured in 2007 in the western state of Michoacan, a day after Zayda Pena of the group Zayda and the Guilty Ones was shot in a hospital while recovering from a separate bullet wound in the border town of Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.

Valentin Elizalde, "El Gallo de Oro," was shot to death along with his manager and driver in 2006 following a performance in Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas. Norteno singer Sergio Vega was shot dead in a northern state of Sinaloa in 2010.

"A lot of people are being killed because they're in the wrong place at the wrong time and musicians are some of the people on that list," Wald said.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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