Ash Kelley

Now, throughout the 1980s specifically, drug trafficking and organized crime had spiked in Mexico due mostly to a massive economic crisis that put a lot of people out of work and led to few options for legitimate employment.

Criminal gangs that were once very poorly organized and focused mostly on petty crime had become a lot more formal, and now there were lots of different networks for trafficking.

Guns, drugs, people, you name it.

Gang violence was a problem all over the country, but it was particularly challenging at the American border.

Oh, I'm sure.

Because large amounts of drugs and other illicit substances were flowing into the country there.

So it wasn't that uncommon for tourists or unlucky American workers to get kidnapped and ransomed back to their families.

So this is what the investigators in South Padre had been thinking when they got the report about Mark going missing in Matamoros.

And if that was what happened to Mark, the small police department in South Padre did lack the resources to deal with a case like this.

I mean, that's a big deal.

Yeah.

So that afternoon, the case was forwarded to Cameron County Sheriff Alex Perez in Brownsville, Texas, which you do have to respect how quickly these police forces moved.

Yeah.

That doesn't always happen.

No.

Definitely not.

It's not often that a small police department realizes that they don't have the resources.

And reaches out.

So when they do, like, you got to snap on them.

Yeah.