An American teen girl has vanished in a Mexican cartel hotspot - with authorities issuing an urgent "Amber Alert."
US citizen Shelbie Lynn Dwyer, 17, disappeared in Salvador Alvarado Municipality, in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, on March 31, with the cops issuing the alert on April 17.
The Sinaloa State Attorney General's Office said that Shelbie may "have fallen victim to a crime".
The Mexican authorities are appealing to the public for help to locate the teen, who they said may have last been spotted at an internet cafe called Curiosita.
They revealed that she has a number of distinctive tattoos, including doves and hands in prayer on her upper left arm, a rose on her right thumb, the word "Bendita" (Spanish for "Blessed") on her lower right arm, "Muerdeme" ("Bite Me") on her buttocks, and a small heart on her left middle finger.
The Amber Alert comes just three days after the Nuevo Leon Attorney General's Office confirmed that a body found on a farm in General Bravo Municipality on April 14 belonged to Bionce Jazmin Amaya Cortez.
Ms Bionce, 29 - also an American national - had been missing since April 6.
She had travelled from Texas to the state of Nuevo Leon to visit relatives and was set to return to the US on April 10, but she vanished a day earlier.
A number of other American women have recently gone missing in Mexico, including Monica de Leon Barba, 29, who was kidnapped in Tepatitlan, in the state of Jalisco, on November 29 last year while walking home with her dog.
The FBI has offered a reward of $40,000 (£32,000) for information about her whereabouts.
And US citizen Maria del Carmen Lopez, 63, was kidnapped from her home in Pueblo Nuevo, in the state of Colima, on February 9 this year.
The FBI has offered a $20,000 (£16,000) reward for information regarding her whereabouts, with Mexican media saying that she splits her time between Los Angeles and Mexico, where she has family.
The missing person search comes just months after four people travelling to Mexico from South Carolina for a tummy tuck were captured by drug cartels.
The group was travelling to Matamoros, in Tamaulipas, Mexico so one of them could have a surgery, when they were attacked and kidnaped
Latavia “Tay” McGee and Eric James Williams survived and returned to their families, while Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown were killed.
The two surviving Americans were rescued by authorities after three days being held by the gunmen.
Ms McGee and Mr James said in an interview with CNN they were moved between cartel safehouses and had to hide underneath the dead bodies of their friends.
Authorities believe the kidnappers thought the four were a group of rival Haitian drug dealers.
Ms McGee said the group apologised after realising they had killed two innocent people.
She said: "He said there's nothing we can do to bring your two brothers back but we're sorry, somebody made the wrong call, he was high and drunk, and I am from America too."
Mexican authorities arrested Jose Guadalupe N., 24, who was found guarding the scene.
Following the rise in kidnappings, police confirmed an additional 300 personnel, including 200 soldiers of the Mexican army would be sent to Matamoros to police the area and help bring down the drug cartels.
