Three American women missing in Mexico after crossing border to attend flea market

The Associated Press reported that bureau officials said that Martiza Trinidad Perez Rios and Marina Perez Rios, 47 and 48, along with 53-year-old Dora Alicia Cervantes Saenz have not been heard from in several weeks after heading to the Mexican city of Montemorelos to sell clothes at a flea market.

The two sisters are reportedly from Peñitas, a Texan border town.

"Beyond that, officials in the U.S. and Mexico haven't said much about their pursuit" of the three missing women, the Gateway Pundit noted.

The news comes after four Americans who had also crossed into Mexico from Texas were kidnapped, with two of them being killed, by the Gulf Cartel.

Deceased victims Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown were abducted along with Latavia McGee and Eric Williams in the border town of Matamoros, but U.S. officials said they ignored warning signs.

According to former FBI Executive Assistant Director Josh Skule, the victims "ignored the 'do not travel' warnings into a very dangerous area."

"This area of Mexico is very hotly contested," he told NewsNation. "It's an ongoing civil war, the Gulf Cartel, obviously very violent. Everybody should be concerned about traveling into that area."

Out of the 32 Mexican states, 30 are on the US travel advisory watchlist with varying degrees of danger. For Tamaulipas, a popular border crossing point for US citizens visiting Mexico from Texas, the State Department warns Americans against traveling there "due to crime and kidnapping."