Friday, March 6, 2009
Immigrant smugglers get life in prison for kidnapping

Witnesses testified the men held a Brazilian woman and her child for more money instead of delivering them to the woman's husband.

By LARRY WELBORN
The Orange County Register
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SANTA ANA – Two immigrant smugglers were sentenced to life in prison Friday for kidnapping a Brazilian woman and her 5-year-old son and holding them for ransom.

Reynaldo Junior Eid, 49, of New York and Alaor Docarmo Oliveira Jr., 55, of Connecticut were found guilty by a jury a year ago after they demanded more money to finish bringing the mother and child from Sao Paolo, Brazil, to her husband, who was living illegally in the United States.

The husband paid another smuggler $14,000 to bring his family to Florida through Mexico, according to a statement from the Orange County District Attorney's Office. The victims were passed from one smuggler to another as they made their way through Mexico and eventually across the border into San Diego from Tijuana.

The two were eventually picked up at a gas station in Costa Mesa by Eid and Oliveira, who contacted the woman's husband and demanded more money, according to the statement. They also threatened to take the man's wife and child to New York to work off their debt if they didn't get paid, prosecutors said.

The victim's husband called a friend in Orange County and asked that she go to the hotel to try to help the victims escape, said Deputy District Attorney Andre Manssourian, but the defendants slammed the door in the friend's face and began threatening the victims.

The friend then called the police from outside the hotel. Police officers arrived as the defendants were attempting to flee with the victims.

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