Two U.S. citizens who traveled to Coahuila on a hunting trip had their vehicles taken at gunpoint by cartel operatives during a fierce firefight that killed 21 individuals near the border with Texas.

Donald Chapman and Colby Williams were part of a group of tourists on a hunting trip when a group of gunmen took their vehicles, Zocalo reported. While initial reports indicated the U.S. citizens were kidnapped, recent announcement by state authorities revealed the two are safely in the U.S. but it remains unclear if they were ever abducted. Authorities did confirm the theft of a 2019 Ford F-250 and a 2018 GMC Sierra.

The carjacking took place on Saturday morning shortly after a group of gunmen from the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas began attacking Villa Union, Coahuila, setting off a fierce shootout that led to the deaths of 21. The CDN-Los Zetas gunmen were riding in more than a dozen armored trucks with mounted machine guns as they attacked the town’s city hall and torched police vehicles.

It was during that turmoil when the gunmen carjacked the U.S. tourists and kidnapped several Villa Union residents. The violence is the most recent attack by Los Zetas-CDN who are terrorizing various cities in Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, and now Coahuila.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.