Band of border kidnappers apprehended
SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — A group of kidnappers said to be responsible for several abductions throughout northern Baja California has been taken apart, prosecutors say.
María Elena Andrade Ramírez, the state’s Attorney General, said members of this criminal cell were arrested last Saturday when a 21-year-old woman was rescued by special agents.
The victim had been taken at gunpoint and shoved into a van two days earlier, Andrade Ramírez said.
“Witnesses reported the kidnappers fired their weapons into the air as a way to intimidate the woman and scare people on the street,” she said, adding that evidence from the scene and witness accounts led officers to a house where the woman was being held.
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“Agents from our anti-kidnapping unit approached a man who was closing a gate at a home that had very bad structural conditions, it almost looked abandoned. The man tried to get away from the officers, that’s when they heard a woman’s cries for help.”
As the woman was being rescued, some of the officers noticed a white van trying to leave the area. It matched the description of the vehicle used to kidnap the 21-year-old.
The van was stopped, and three people were taken into custody.
Andrade Ramírez said cellphones used to negotiate the woman’s ransom were also recovered.
It was then determined the suspects had been involved in other kidnappings in the region.
“These people are from other states, they were trying to establish themselves to continue doing this type of work,” said Andrade Ramírez. “We’re not going to allow these types of gangs to take our state’s peace and quiet. In Baja California, those who commit crimes will pay.”
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