http://www.kten.com/Global/story.asp?S=4429536

U.S. woman living in Nuevo Laredo reported missing

SAN ANTONIO Mexican and U-S investigators are looking into the weekend disappearance of an American woman living in the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo.

Families members of 30-year-old Laura Alicia Aragon Carmona says she was last seen dropping off her two children at her mother's house Saturday afternoon in Nuevo Laredo. Afterward, she was supposed to meet friends across the Rio Grande in Laredo, Texas. She was driving a white B-M-W with a Texas license plate.

Missing-person reports were filed with Tamaulipas state police, Nuevo Laredo and Laredo police, and the F-B-I. Her father-in-law, Rodolfo Pena (PEHN-yah), also says Aragon's husband, Gabriel Pena, had notified the U-S Consulate in Nuevo Laredo.

Violence in Nuevo Laredo escalated about a year ago as two warring drug cartels vie for control of this gateway into the United States. There are more than 25 Americans reported missing in the past year and half. That's fueled debate over whether the cartels are involved in kidnapping.

Aragon's family said they have "zero" connection to the drug cartel or related business.