The FBI has offered a $40,000 reward for information leading to the whereabouts of an American woman who went missing in Mexico more than three months ago.
The 29-year-old Monica de Leon Barba, who was last seen on November 29 in Tepatitlán, Jalisco, Mexico, walking her dog home from work, has gone missing. Authorities are seeking more tips and information about her abduction. CBS Bay Area says that De Leon is from San Mateo, California.
“If you have any information that could help us find Monica, please contact law enforcement,” the FBI San Francisco office tweeted.
The American woman was headed to a gym between 5-6 p.m. called Fit 4 Life in the Guadalupe Fraction when she was forced into a van “leaving the poor puppy alone in the street,” her family and friends said on a community Facebook page dedicated to finding the missing woman.
“I can’t help but think of the absolute fear and agony she has faced for the last 121 days,” her brother Gustavo De Leon said in a statement on the page. He said his sister was abducted from their hometown and that a head of state that “allows kidnapping of any kind under their watch must answer and provide their aid in bringing my sister home.”
According to data from Global Guardian, a security risk intelligence company, Mexico has one of the highest kidnapping rates in the world, in part because of the organization and opportunism of Mexican criminal enterprises. They discovered that express and virtual abduction are common in Mexico and frequently carried out as a form of financial extortion, robbery, or ransom.
Robert Almonte, a retired U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Texas, claims that kidnappings are the drug cartels’ “bread and butter.” Authorities have not disclosed whether they have any suspects or leads.
Almonte, who worked for 25 years as an undercover narcotics investigator for the El Paso police force, claimed that cartels frequently kidnap and blackmail local companies. He claimed that this strategy, used by the cartels to extract money from the families, is part of their “culture” in Mexico.
Almonte said that kidnappings are on the rise because cartels they “feel emboldened,” while the relationship between Mexican and U.S. law enforcement has deteriorated.
“It’s getting worse because the Mexican government can not get control of the cartels,” he says. “The U.S. is going to get the brunt of that.”
De Leon’s brother posted a statement yesterday pleading for his sister’s safe return, saying, “we cannot allow this to be the status quo and I will not allow my sister to become another statistic of cowardice and inaction in politics.”
