http://elpasotimes.com/news/ci_4759174

EP man arrested in holding smuggled boys for ransom
By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times
Article Launched:12/02/2006 12:00:00 AM MST


Antonio Vicente Torres A suspected immigrant smuggler allegedly held two brothers, ages 9 and 11, whose mother had been deported, and demanded $1,000 from their father, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Friday.
The case came to the agency's attention when the boys' father called the Border Patrol for help, ICE officials said.

The harrowing experience had a happy ending: The boys were returned to their parents.

But "it was hairy while the agents were trying to locate the children," said Leticia Zamarripa, ICE spokeswo man.

Thursday afternoon, ICE agents arrested Antonio Vicente Torres, 31, of the 900 block of Destello, while he was picking up the ransom money in the Fox Plaza parking lot. Only the 11-year-old boy was with Torres.

The 9-year-old had been left outside a tire store at North Loop and Carolina Drive in the Lower Valley. Agents found him sitting on the curb, alone.

Torres, a U.S. citizen, is being charged with alien smuggling.

The boys were separated from their mother after Border Patrol agents caught her and she

agreed to be returned to Mexico early Thursday. Torres then allegedly called the boys' father and demanded $1,000.
The family's whereabouts was kept secret for their protection, ICE officials said.

"Smuggling people is a vile crime in itself; taking innocent children and holding them for ransom goes far beyond that. It is a criminal act of indecency and greed that ICE will not tolerate," said Roberto Medina, ICE special agent in charge in El Paso.

Authorities have reported the practice of taking immigrants hostage for years. In February, a Salvadoran girl held captive for ransom by her smuggler was rescued from the Downtown Greyhound bus station.

Thursday at Torres' Lower Valley house, agents found a 3-year-old boy and two women, all undocumented.

ICE officials said that the house served as a drop house and that the women and the toddler had been there a week. One of the women told the agents they paid $1,500 each to be smuggled into the United States. They appeared to be in good health.