http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 11731.html

Dec. 19, 2006, 4:59PM
Last of 5 kidnap victims released near Texas border


By JAMES PINKERTON
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

HARLINGEN — A Mexican cook kidnapped along with four others from a hunting ranch near the Texas border last month has been released, officials said today.

Marco Ortiz was reportedly in good condition after being released Monday night in Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas, said Santos Vasquez, a prosecutor in the border state of Coahuila, where the kidnapping occurred.

Vasquez said he did not know whether a ransom was paid for his release and that officials on both sides of the border were investigating.

Kidnappers freed Laredo customs broker Librado Piña Jr. early Monday, ending more than three weeks of captivity following his abduction from a ranch in Mexico.

FBI agents said Piña, 49, returned to Laredo shortly after 8 a.m., and was taken to a hospital where he was treated and later released. He was described as being "very shook up."

The businessman "endured several days of emotional torture, and he had been roughed up some, " said FBI agent Norman Townsend of Laredo.

Piña's release in Monterrey, Mexico, followed the release Friday of his 25-year-old son.

Librado Piña III was freed in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and walked across an international bridge into Laredo.

The Piña family did not return a reporter's call.

The Piñas, their ranch cook, and two hunting guests were taken captive Nov. 26 by a gang of more than two dozen heavily armed gunmen in a commando-style raid.

The five men were staying at Piña's La Barranca Ranch, across the Rio Grande from Laredo.

The guests, David Mueller, 45, of Sweetwater, and Fidel Rodriguez Cerdan, of Monterrey, were released unharmed three days later.

"All I can say is, it remains an ongoing investigation," Townsend said.

He wouldn't say if a ransom was paid, but a U.S. agent said there was.

The abductions were thought to have been arranged by the Zetas, a group founded by Mexican military deserters who work as enforcers for the Gulf drug cartel, the agent said.

"This is wonderful news for the Piña family," D. True Brown, acting agent in charge of the San Antonio FBI division, stated.

"However, any joy to those working the case is tempered by the fact that the loved ones of more than 20 U.S. citizens reported kidnapped or missing in the Nuevo Laredo area since 2004 still do not know the fate of their loved ones," Brown said.