Thread: Kidnappings on rise in South Texas

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4408951.html


Dec. 18, 2006, 12:04AM
Kidnappings on rise in South Texas
Officials say pressured cartels turn to abductions on U.S. side of the border for ransom

By JAMES PINKERTON
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

EDINBURG — Uriel ''Eli" Del Alba was rescued by police, but not before his kidnappers faded into the morning fog with a $150,000 ransom.

Seven gunmen abducted Del Alba from his ranch north of town in November, making the 57-year-old businessman one of the latest victims of a relentless crime wave plaguing the South Texas border.

Crime in Mexico —gangland decapitations have become a gruesome fad this year — has grabbed most of the headlines.

Meanwhile, the kidnapping trade has quietly flourished in the Rio Grande Valley, where Americans have about the same chance of getting abducted as they do in Mexico, officials say.

Since early 2004, there have been 78 kidnappings in Hidalgo County alone. And neighboring Starr County registered 19 kidnap or missing person cases in 2005 and 2006.

That compares with 98 kidnappings of Americans in all of Mexico in 2005 and 2006.

Kidnappings in the Valley are even outpacing those in the notorious Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo, where the FBI says 60 U.S. citizens have been abducted since April 2004.

Most abductions are tied to the drug trade.

''As long as there's going to be drug trafficking here, we're going to see kidnappings," said Jorge L. Cisneros, an FBI agent in McAllen.

Many kidnappings, including Del Alba's, aren't thought to be linked to drugs. Del Alba owns a chain of tortilla bakeries.

Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said kidnappers — including two from Mexico — snatched him after spotting Del Alba exchanging a large amount of cash during a horse race.

''They just recognized our victim as a prominent business person, with money, and said, 'Let's hit this guy,' " Treviño said.

Two of the kidnappers were later caught, and some of the ransom money recovered. Treviño said the two confessed and told investigators they planned to kidnap three other wealthy Hidalgo County business owners.

The surge in kidnappings has taken many Valley residents by surprise, the sheriff said.

''In Mexico, ransom kidnappings are a way of life. Over here it's an anomaly," he said.

Local and federal officials suspect that many of the abductions on the U.S. side of the border aren't reported. Victims and their families often fear retribution from the violent gangs believed to be responsible.

''In the majority of the kidnappings, there is a drug nexus or a connection to a human trafficking organization," said Treviño. ''This stranger-on-strang- er stuff, that's a rarity."

While officials in South Texas work to bring an end to the kidnappings, Mexican authorities are dealing with problems of their own.

The Matamoros-based Gulf Cartel and other drug gangs have branched out into the kidnapping-for-ransom business, U.S. law enforcement agents say.

''The Gulf Cartel has lost a great deal of money recently from interdicted drug shipments and has turned to kidnapping to recoup their losses," according to a U.S. intelligence report, which said 57 businessmen had been abducted recently in northern Mexico.

'They still need money'

U.S. and Mexican officials ''think part of what is going on is due to some of the pressure we're putting on smugglers of narcotics and illegal aliens," said Alonzo Peña, who heads the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Phoenix.

''If they can't move narcotics, they still need money, and money is money, so they start kidnapping people," Peña said.

In Laredo, FBI agents say 26 U.S. citizens remain missing among the 60 abducted in the Nuevo Laredo area since April 2004.

The tally of missing Americans includes Laredo customs broker Librado Peña Jr. and his son, who were taken by a gang of armed men from their private hunting ranch across the border on Nov. 27.

''All in all, the situation has been bad, and it's not getting any better," said Norm Townsend, the senior supervisory FBI agent in Laredo.

Because FBI agents have no jurisdiction in Mexico, Townsend said, they can do little more than pass on leads and other assistance to Mexican authorities.

There have been some successes. FBI agents on Sept. 20 arrested two alleged Gulf Cartel gunmen in Laredo after they released a man they kidnapped three weeks earlier in Houston.

The kidnap victim, suspected of losing a 650-pound load of marijuana, was taken to a Mexican border town and handed over to a cartel trafficker named ''Lalo." There, he was allegedly beaten by kidnappers until his family, contacted in Roma, delivered a $57,000 ransom.

In that case, FBI agents were unaware of the kidnapping until Texas Department of Public Safety officials asked for their help, officials said.

That's all too common, officials say. In most cases, the families of kidnap victims involved in narcotics are reluctant to report the abduction, or cooperate with police.

''I'm sure there are a lot more than we hear about," said McAllen FBI agent Cisneros.

The true extent of the drug-related violence in Mexico is hard to determine, since official reporting by police agencies can be incomplete. Press accounts of murders and kidnappings are an important indicator.

Mexico's Human Rights Commission indicates kidnappings in border towns across from South Texas fell from 237 last year to 125 by early December. But some say those numbers would be higher if all abductions were published.

james.pinkerton@chron.com

Many former drug smugglers are now human smugglers or they do both. As for Americans being kidnapped, they need self defense training and look at various items availible out there to defend yourself.

All the self defense training in the world isn't going to get you out of a neverending mob of thugs. The government knows good and well what is happening there, and they leave people to fend for themselves. Mexico and the US should be ashamed.

Originally Posted by swatchick

Many former drug smugglers are now human smugglers or they do both. As for Americans being kidnapped, they need self defense training and look at various items availible out there to defend yourself.

I agree, but one has to wonder if they would then be prosecuted for defending themselves from being kidnapped.

added to the homepage

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=N ... e&sid=1784

I can tell you that if they were in Florida they could shoot the person in self defense just as long as you can prove it. In a neighboring city there were 2 Hispanic males who were trying to steal a truck out of the owner's driveway, the owner heard noise, came out and tried to stop them. One guy pointed a gun at him and the guy wrestled with him, got the gun aimed at the thief and ended up killing him with one shot. The thief's accomplice took off. The guy who was protecting his property has not and will not be charged. There was another case where 2 men broke into a house not knowing that an owner was inside. The owner was woken up and he grabbed his gun. One of the burglars confronted him and he shot and killed the guy and the other guy took off. He was also never charged.