Did you read this article? What are your thoughts on this?

[h8u_friggin_illegals]

NEWS online print edition
Print Article Email Article Most Popular Change Type Size Kidnapping of illegal immigrants on the rise
Lindsey Collom
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 29, 2007 12:00 AM

They are kidnapped at gunpoint, whisked away, held for ransom, sometimes tortured. Sometimes, they are sent home. Sometimes, they end up dead.

They are involved in human and drug trafficking; many are illegal immigrants. They are kidnapping victims, and police say their numbers are on the rise.

Kidnappings have long been an issue among illegal immigrants, where predators know victims are less likely to turn to law enforcement. But authorities say the rate of such crime has reached a new high. The violence rarely touches legitimate businesses and citizens, police say, but it's happening close to home. advertisement




"What you have are people who are heavily armed, motivated, very violent, who are in the community that are torturing people, killing people," said Sgt. Joel Tranter, a Phoenix police spokesman. "They're driving the same streets as everybody else. They're in that house that's quiet, and you see people come and go a little bit. Imagine if that's the house next to yours."





Phoenix police now investigate one to three new cases each week, but officials believe the crimes are vastly underreported because victims are hesitant to come forward, and even when they are, many are too scared to help prosecute.

Over the past year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Arizona took more than 100 kidnapping reports with nearly a quarter of those resulting in prosecution.

The phenomenon is primarily seen in Phoenix, although Glendale police report similar cases, but with much less frequency. Tranter said the victims are people actively involved in human or drug trafficking or are connected to those criminals in some way.

Victims are kidnapped at gunpoint from their homes or places of business, held hostage and sometimes tortured until a ransom is paid. Ransoms can be several thousand to a quarter-of-a-million dollars. Most victims' families prefer working directly with captors without police intervention. It's only when negotiations hit a snag or when families fear their loved one may die that police are called, Tranter said.


2 taken hostage

In a recent case, a woman called authorities after kidnappers were paid but refused to release two men taken hostage. The victims were found Nov. 20 inside a bedroom closet at a home near 17th Street and Palm Lane. Six people arrested in the case have been charged with kidnapping and aggravated assault.

The victims, age 18 and 29 and both undocumented immigrants, told police they were kidnapped at gunpoint and forced into a vehicle Nov. 15. According to a police report, they described being driven to the home, blindfolded and told to remain quiet for fear of electric shock. While the men remained quiet, police said, they were still forced to stand in buckets of water and shocked as the family scrambled to meet a ransom demand of $80,000. It took four days for the family to scrape together $30,000. One day after the ransom was paid, their loved ones still had not returned, and that's when police were called.

Police records show that at least one of the suspects admitted developing the kidnapping scheme on reports that one of the men was related to a "rich" human smuggler. Whether police will be able to find evidence of human smuggling remains to be seen, Tranter said.

A series of recent Phoenix cases involve similar victims, including a drug dealer's girlfriend, and the matriarch of a family whose produce business was investigated by federal authorities on suspicion of marijuana trafficking. Both were returned in exchange for hefty ransoms, police said.

But not all victims go home. Some are found as nearly naked bodies that are bound, blindfolded and "shot execution-style," Tranter said. Violence has long been associated with the drug- and human-smuggling trades, but the scale has increased in the past decade, ICE spokesman Vinnie Picard said.

"I think some of that is related to the fact that it's tougher to get across the border and more people are relying on coyotes," Picard said. "It makes people vulnerable to exploitation. Smuggling routes are controlled by pretty violent organizations, and we see the same tactics bleeding over."

[Looney]

Boy, I bet you are going to get some answers that show just how ugly and inhumane humans can be...