Thread: girl held captive at border hotel

On way to U.S., girl held captive at border hotel


Problem is not new, officials say
By Onell R. Soto
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
June 26, 2006

The 16-year-old girl thought she was dealing with smugglers in Tijuana, but her attempt to get across the border took a bad turn when she was held captive for ransom.

Pay the money, her relatives said they were told last week, and the girl – who was being held in a hotel – will be released in the United States.

“Once the money was paid, they told her it didn't work out and gave her 20 pesos,” said Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is investigating the case.

The problem, Mack said, was that the people holding the girl never intended to help her cross the border.

The girl's relatives “were actually (negotiating) with individuals posing as smugglers who ended up extorting them,” she said.

It is a situation investigators in her agency have come across three times in the past year, Mack said.

But it's nothing new, said Victor Clark, a human rights activist who has tracked crime in Tijuana for years.

“It's common, but not reported,” Clark said.

People who arrive in Tijuana not knowing how they'll get across the border are vulnerable to scam artists working the airport, the bus stations and the red-light district, where human smugglers ply their trade, he said.

“The problem is knowing the smuggler you're dealing with,” Clark said. “You could be in the hands of a real criminal.”

Clark, director of the Tijuana-based Binational Center of Human Rights, recalled an incident more than 12 years ago in which people posing as smugglers doubled their price and promised that the Chilean woman they said they were helping was in the United States.

Her family paid the money, but the woman never crossed the border.

“They had her in a Tijuana hotel,” Clark said.

In last week's incident, the girl's relatives called police after the initial ransom request, and with guidance from authorities, negotiated a wire transfer that was to be picked up at a Western Union location in San Ysidro, Mack said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested the woman who picked up the cash, but she wasn't charged after they determined she didn't know about the kidnapping, Mack said.

The 16-year-old told agents that she willingly went to a Tijuana hotel to arrange being smuggled into the United States, but that the people who then took her hostage covered her face so she couldn't identify them, she said.

“People . . . are preying on vulnerable individuals when they arrive in Tijuana,” Mack said.





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Onell Soto: (619) 293-1280; onell.soto@uniontrib.com









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“The problem is knowing the smuggler you're dealing with,” Clark said. “You could be in the hands of a real criminal.”

And the decent smugglers are not real criminals?

I guess they need some kind of referral service down there so you can tell the "decent smugglers" from the "criminal smugglers".

And the decent smugglers are not real criminals?

I guess they need some kind of referral service down there so you can tell the "decent smugglers" from the "criminal smugglers".

Ya that bad and worse choice again.