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Four men were arrested and charged with kidnapping migrants who had been smuggled into the United States and demanding their relatives pay ransom for their release, officials said Monday.

The men have pleaded not guilty after they were arraigned on an indictment, the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles said. A fifth man has been charged in the case but remains a fugitive, prosecutors said in a statement.

The defendants took the four migrants from an Arizona gas station last year and later held them hostage at a house in California, prosecutors said.

Three of the hostages were later moved to a motel where one escaped through a second-story bathroom window and ran to a nearby store, the statement said. One of the suspects followed him and punched him, trying to kidnap him again, the statement said.

  • NegativeInf@lemmy.world
    8·
    3 months ago

    I don’t think they are white after reading further, but no evidence of cartel involvement either? Just a bunch of assholes taking advantage of the vulnerable.

    Four men from Southern California have been charged with federal crimes alleging that they kidnapped migrants from Arizona, transported them to California and then held them for ransom.

    The men, Miguel Angel Avila, 22, of Hemet; Omar Avila Salmeron, 41, of Los Angeles; Jose Jaime Garcia, 20, of San Jacinto; and Jose Alfredo Moreno Gonzalez, 21, of Oak Hills, were arraigned on federal charges and have all pleaded not guilty.

    According to the July 30 indictment, on March 21, 2023, Avila instructed Moreno to drive to a gas station in Chandler, Arizona, where he allegedly kidnapped four migrants and drove them to a restaurant in Burbank.

    Avila, Garcia and Becerra then held the four migrants hostage in a house and contacted their loved ones with the victims’ phones and demanded ransom money in exchange for their safe release.

    Avila allegedly used one of the victim’s cellphones to demand ransom payments be made to one account in Mexico and another in the U.S. in exchange for that victim’s release, the DOJ said.

    The following day, Avila, Garcia and Becerra allegedly moved the victims to a motel room where one of them managed to escape through a second-story bathroom window.

    Avila and an unnamed co-conspirator allegedly chased the victim to a store in Koreatown where Avila “body-slammed the victim, placed him in a chokehold, and punched him repeatedly in the face in an attempt to re-kidnap him.”

    That incident was caught on security camera and the DOJ shared a screenshot of the video on Monday.