Exclusive-Mexico probes possible drug motive for attack on four Americans -document

A soldier guards outside the Attorney General's Office of the State of Tamaulipas ahead of the transfer of the bodies of two of four Americans kidnapped by gunmen to the U.S. border, in Matamoros, Mexico, March 8, 2023. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

MEXICO CITY/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mexican law enforcement agents are investigating the possibility that members of a drug cartel kidnapped four Americans last Friday thinking that they were encroaching on their turf, according to an internal government document seen by Reuters.

Two of the Americans, identified by Mexican officials as Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown, were found dead on Monday in a wood cabin southeast of Matamoros, the border city in the state of Tamaulipas where the four were abducted on Friday.