Photo: Semar

By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

Nearly 96 hours after they disappeared in Zapopán, Jalisco, on Tuesday, Nov. 16, Mexico’s Navy (Semar) announced Friday, Nov. 19, that it had found the two missing sailors alive, tied and gagged, some 300 kilometers away from where they had last been seen, in that state’s beach resort Puerto Vallarta.

The Jalisco State Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that the discovery of the missing sailors Friday night a few meters from the Eighth Naval Zone, to which they were assigned.

The sailors, a man and a woman, were apparently unharmed and later stated that they had been left there just a short time earlier.

The two went missing  at about 11:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 15, shortly after the arrest of Rosalinda González Valencia, wife of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, aka “El Mencho,” the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

The sailors were allegedly detained by armed men inside their Jeep vehicle outside a supermarket.

The Jeep was later located in a nearby neighborhood.

Mexican authorities assumed that their disappearance was an act of retaliation by the CJNG for González Valencia’s arrest.

Following the sailors’ disappearance, federal forces began a search for Laisha Michelle Oseguera González, daughter of El Mencho.

As a result, there was a sudden surge in violence, presumably linked to the CJNG, across the region, including the murder of 20 men, some of whom’s bodies were found suspended from a highway bridge.