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A group of four South Koreans and one Chinese were freed by their kidnappers in Mexico on Wednesday morning, where they had been held since July 14. Earlier reports had said all victims were Korean.
"On Wednesday morning, the captors let the hostages out of a vehicle in front of a hotel in the downtown area of the Mexican city of Reynosa, where they had kidnapped them earlier,ˇ± said Lee Jeong-gwan, director-general of the Foreign Ministry's Overseas Koreans and Consular Affairs Bureau. ˇ°They informed police of the victims' whereabouts by phone after leaving the area. Mexican police found the victims there later. There was no ransom payment."
He added Mexican police said they will hand over the freed Koreans to Korean authorities after an investigation of how they were taken hostage. ˇ°It seems that the Mexican police are investigating to find out if they attempted to smuggle themselves into the U.S. at that time, considering that the area borders an American city."
Diplomatic sources both in Mexico and Seoul said apparently one of the hostages is a member of a gang smuggling people into the U.S. from Mexico. Mexican police suspect that the hostages were kidnapped because of a conflict with a Mexican gang of human traffickers in the process of an illegal immigration attempt into the U.S.
All victims deny involvement in such a racket.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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