FBI: Ex-Cop Plotted to Kidnap Child From Wealthy O.C. Family
If the family did not pay the $300,000 ransom the man planned to cut off the child's fingers and send them to the family, authorities say.

4:15 AM PDT, April 1, 2010
Cesar Ariel Zapata-Landeros

Cesar Ariel Zapata-Landeros (FBI)
SANTA ANA -- A former Tijuana police officer has been indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with a plot to kidnap a child from a wealthy Tustin family and demand $300,000 in ransom.

Cesar Ariel Zapata-Landeros is accused of contacting an FBI informant to help with the kidnapping, FBI Agent George Boykins said in a criminal complaint filed in federal court.

Earlier this month, the informant told the FBI about the plot to kidnap the child as the victim's mother drive him to school, Boykins said.

Zapata-Landeros planned to run the mother's car off the road, flatten the tires and kidnap one of her two children who are 10-12 years old, Boykins said.

If the family did not pay the $300,000 ransom while the kidnappers held the child in a rented storage space in Westminster, Zapata-Landeros planned to cut off two fingers and send them to the family, Boykins said.

The name of the allegedly targeted family is not being released.

Zapata-Landeros told the informant, in a meeting in a Santa Ana hotel room where he was staying, that he had done a kidnapping before, Boykins said.

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