2 children rescued in ransom attempt

2 suspects held in smuggling case

By Onell R. Soto
STAFF WRITER

August 5, 2008

After U.S. Border Patrol agents twice stopped their efforts to enter the country illegally south of Imperial Beach, a Mexican couple decided to just go back home.

But their young children were already across the border, and the smugglers who had taken them there were asking for $7,000 to get them back.

When the parents said they couldn't come up with the money, a smuggler told them “there were others that would,â€