Footballer Alan Pulido kidnapped in Mexican hometown: police

Nuevo Laredo (Mexico) (AFP) – Mexican footballer Alan Pulido, a striker on Greece’s Olympiakos team, was kidnapped Sunday in his home state of Tamaulipas, law enforcement officials here said.

Family members told authorities that Pulido was snatched at around dawn in his birth city of Ciudad Victoria.

Officials told AFP that an intensive search for the 25-year-old footballer was underway in the state of Tamaulipas in northeastern Mexico, said to be among the most dangerous in the country, where drug-trafficking and kidnappings are rampant.

Local media reported that Pulido had accompanied his girlfriend to a party in Ciudad Victoria, and that the car they were in was intercepted by a convoy of vans that blocked the road and forced him out of the car.

The young woman was released almost immediately, but said she had no idea where Pulido had been taken.

His family members said that they had not yet received phone calls demanding a ransom or laying out the conditions for his release.