Thread: Fake kidnappers demanding real ransoms, ICE agents say

Fake kidnappers demanding real ransoms, ICE agents say
by Sean Holstege - Sept. 12, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Kidnapping has long been a scourge of Latin America and has plagued the Valley over the past two years.

But now, a newer brand of the crime is sweeping Mexico and is being exported to Phoenix: what investigators call "virtual kidnapping."

Mexican extortion gangs have figured out two ways to bilk people for ransom money without actually kidnapping anyone.
In one, virtual kidnappers find out when someone in the United States is traveling to Mexico and demand ransom from the traveler's family. Kidnappers know the traveler is incommunicado, perhaps in a remote area without cellphone service. They gamble that graphic threats of mutilation and death will compel families to pay before they find out the traveler is safe.

In the more common method, the con artists get hold of smugglers' lists of illegal immigrants, then call the immigrants' families in the U.S. and pose as coyotes and demand ransom. Often, the immigrants are waiting to cross or on their way to a Phoenix drophouse when the ransom call is made.

In one June case, coyotes left a woman to die in the desert near Tucson because she was slowing the group down, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. That didn't stop a virtual kidnapper from calling the woman's family in Houston for a smuggling fee, which the family didn't pay. The body wasn't found for two weeks, and the family knew nothing about the woman's fate.

Growing problem

ICE's Phoenix division typically gets a report once a week of a hostage being held by smugglers. About a quarter of the kidnappings are bogus, said Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Armando Garcia, who oversees such cases.

"Virtual kidnapping is real. Last week, we had three. These cases take up a lot of our attention," Garcia said. "I think it is picking up."

The reports come in from family members around the country who say a smuggler called them from a Phoenix-area cellphone. Typically, the con artists are seeking $2,000 to $4,000,double the typical smuggling fee.

Local and state police also get calls about cases that involve travelers to Mexico, not human smuggling.

In July, the Phoenix Police Department investigated the case of parents who reported getting a call from someone claiming to be holding their 16-year-old daughter hostage for about $2,500. The FBI was called in and an international search begun, but it turned out the girl was safe with relatives in Mexico and the family never paid the ransom.

Phoenix police Sgt. Phil Roberts, who worked that case, remembers about a half-dozen virtual kidnappings in the past two years.

Sgt. Carlos Contreras, who investigated the missing-girl case for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, said he expects to see the trend grow in Phoenix.

Fear grips Mexico

Kidnapping strikes a deep, raw nerve in Mexico. Press accounts describe people buying radio transmitters to embed in their skin so that loved ones can be tracked if abduction gangs seize them. Talk has grown of establishing the death penalty for kidnappers. Last week, tens of thousands of people marched in Mexico City demanding the government clamp down on kidnapping.

Mexico City last December set up a hotline for people to report extortion attempts. After four months, authorities reported logging 44,000 complaints, which included more than 1,600 people who had paid virtual kidnappers.

It's no wonder then that many immigrants in Phoenix and around the country fall sway to virtual kidnappers' intimidation.

"They are very, very violent. They want to let you know what they'll do. A lot of them speak good English," ICE's Garcia said. "They get explicit: 'I'm gonna cut his fingers off. I'm gonna rape her.' "

It's one sign they might be bluffing. Typically, smugglers who extort families tell them they will never see their loved one again and will dump the bodies in the desert if families don't pay. They also tend to put the hostage on the phone. Virtual kidnappers refuse because they don't have anyone.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... p0912.html

And the libs want more of these people here why?

It's not just "libs" that want these people here. George W. Bush and John McCain want these people here.

Their presence is so large that is has created an industry like this to come about.