Six men were abducted from an upscale restaurant in the Mexican resort town of Puerto Vallarta on Monday — including the son of imprisoned drug cartel kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán, officials say.
The kidnapping was a brazen crime, one that might signal a major drug cartel rivalry, NPR's Carrie Kahn reports.
"Jalisco state's attorney general confirmed that 29-year-old Jesus Alfredo Guzmán, a son of Chapo Guzmán, was one of six men abducted by armed assailants in Puerto Vallarta," Carrie says.
"The lead prosecutor also said the kidnappers are members of the New Jalisco Generation cartel, the dominant organized crime gang in the state."
It's not clear to authorities if another son of Guzmán's, Ivan, was also kidnapped, Carrie reports.
"This is the latest attack on the family of the imprisoned kingpin and may signal an open challenge to Chapo Guzmán's Sinaloa cartel from the upstart Jalisco New Generation gang," she says.
The Associated Press has more details on the abduction, which was carried out by seven heavily armed men:
"After reviewing security camera footage, [Jalisco state Attorney General Eduardo] Almaguer said that besides the restaurant's staff, there were nine women and seven men dining together when the gunmen burst in early Monday.
" 'The subjects enter, control the diners, separate the women to a side and violently take them (the men),' he said in an interview with The Associated Press prior to the news conference. 'They resisted; however, these criminals who arrived did it with a certain violence with long guns.'
"Almaguer said one of the men managed to escape. He said authorities also had not located any of the women who were left behind."
Authorities have not heard of a ransom demand or any tips about where the kidnapped men might be located, the AP writes.
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