50 US-bound migrants kidnapped by armed gang members who intercepted their bus in Mexico

At least 41 United States-bound migrants and two drivers remain missing after their bus was intercepted by armed and masked gang members in the central Mexico state of San Luis Potosí.

The captors called the bus company Monday morning at 4 am - two hours after the kidnapping - and said they would only release the migrants if they received a $1,500 ransom payment for each of them.

The group of 50 migrants departed from the city of Tapachula, in the southern state of Chiapas across from Guatemala, on Sunday and was stopped on a stretch of Federal Highway 57 in the San Luis Potosí town of Matehuala on Monday around 2 am.

The bus was diverted and stopped in the municipality of Altiplano, where it remained stationed for 30 minutes, and was later found in the Nuevo León city of Los Medina.

Masked and armed gang members kidnapped 50 migrants and two drivers after intercepting their bus on a highway in the central Mexico state of San Luis Potosí on Monday. Nine migrants escaped and were rescued by cops in the nearby state of Nuevo León. The suspects contacted the company that owns the bus and said they will only release the remaining migrants if they receive $1,500 for each one of them

At one point, nine migrants between the ages of 18 and 35 were able to escape from their kidnappers and were found by the police wandering on a road in the nearby northern Nuevo León.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Wednesday the National Guard had been deployed to help aid in the search of the missing migrants.

'Unfortunately, it appears that there are gangs that kidnap, that is why (we) appeal to the migrant brothers not to be fooled, manipulated, by the traffickers ... by the smugglers who tell you if you get 5, 6 or 8 thousand dollars, they are going to get you in the United States. You are risking a lot,' he said.

Foro TV reported that all of the migrants had a permit that allowed them to transit freely through Mexico for 45 days while their legal process was sorted out by the National Institute of Migration.

Adrían González, a partner at Grufo Eifel, which operates the fleet of buses, suggested that either one or both of the drivers may have been directly involved with the abduction of the migrants.

'Calls have been made to the (driver) and he does not answer, WhatsApp messages are sent and he has not answered them,' González said, as quoted by Infobae.

He added the driver has refused to share his location.

The kidnapping comes after cops in Matehuala launched a search for 23 kidnapped migrants, including children, and located 105 on April 6. At least four suspects were arrested.

According to the non-profit organization Alto al Secuestro (Stop Kidnapping), there were 252 abductions reported in Mexico in April, in comparison with 130 in March.