Band Members Found in Well: Kombo Kolombia Musicians 'Kidnapped, Blindfolded, Shot, Dumped' by Mexico Gunmen, Several Dead, Drug Related?

Horror broke out in northern Mexico on Thursday evening (Jan. 24), when at least ten gunmen raided a private ranch party and kidnapped a total of 18-20 individuals, several of them members of the Colombian-style music band Kombo Kolombia. According to one survivor, the hostages were "blindfolded and kidnapped" and forced to travel down a dirt road, where their assailants asked if any of them belonged to a drug cartel. Shots were eventually fired and bodies of the dead victims thrown into a nearby well. Police began searching the area where the band last performed along the highway over the weekend, and eventually dug up a total of 18 lifeless bodies from the well which they were dumped in.

According to Nuevo Leon state security spokesman Jorge Domene, one victim managed to escape to a nearby ranch and alert authorities about the mass kidnapping. The unidentified survivor told police that his fellow band mates has been "beaten and shot at." He then led law enforcement back to the scene, where searchers found several gunshot-afflicted bodies piled on top of one another in the well.

As of Monday afternoon (Jan. 28), 12 bodies were recovered from the well, all showing signs of torture and abuse. The Christian Post holds the body count at18 as of Tuesday morning (Jan. 29). Several of the victims were found wearing identical band t-shirts.

Authorities initially reported that 12-16 members of the band Kombo Kolombia and four crew members were reported missing early Friday after playing a private party for about 50 people at a ranch called La Carreta (The Wagon) in Hidalgo.  According to Domene, the party guests are currently being questioned but police have yet to determine a motive in the killings. Still, Domene recently told the New York Times that "this was a direct attack. It was not random."

Governor Rodrigo Medina de la Cruz said during a recent television interview - "We are going to continue looking for them... We are also going to investigate to find the motive, why it happened, and in the event that the taking of their lives is confirmed, what was behind this and of course, capturing those that did it."

According to a source with the Nuevo Leon State Investigative Agency who wishes to remain unanimous, several people living near the ranch reported hearing gunshots at around 4 a.m. Friday followed by the sound of vehicles speeding away. Relatives initially filed a missing persons report on Friday after losing cellular phone contact with the musicians.

Kombo Kolombia was a local band that played the popular Colombian style of music known as vallenato. The attack may have been drug-related, considering that vicious Mexican cartels have recently targeted several musicians that play a certain type of music known as "narcocorridos." According to the New York Times, this musical genre "glorifies the criminal underworld and ends up offending well-armed listeners." Kombo Kolombia did not play narcocorridos-related music.

Nuevo Leon state representative Jesus Valencia stated, "We assume their killers are related to some kind of criminal group. They could have played a song someone did not like or said something someone did not like. We don't know."