Police: Kidnapping ring tortured illegal immigrants
Two men in custody while police search for a third.
By Patrick George, Isadora Vail



Thursday, July 09, 2009

Austin police and federal authorities said they have apprehended two members of a kidnapping ring that held illegal immigrants against their will and tortured them.

Ismael Alvarez, 43, Luis Adrian Lopez-Alegria, 23, and Tereso Lopez-Leon, 44, are charged with aggravated kidnapping. Police are searching for Lopez-Leon.

Police said the men held in Austin apartments three victims who recently crossed the border, tortured them and demanded their families wire them ransom money.

The affidavit said the victims told police they were repeatedly beaten, had their heads held under water in a toilet, were locked in a closet and were tied up. The men were taken out of the closet one by one and driven to rural areas, where they were stripped, stabbed and abandoned, the affidavit said.

Police began investigating the case in September when Travis County sheriff's deputies discovered a naked man in the back of a pickup off FM 973, according to Alvarez's arrest affidavit. The victim and several other men were held at a Riverside Drive apartment and told they needed to pay more money to reach their destinations of Houston and Louisiana, the affidavit said.

In March, another victim surfaced after he escaped from an apartment on Hearthstone Drive in North Austin.

That victim told police that he met a group of people while crossing the border illegally. The affidavit said the victim continued to walk with them until a truck took them to an unknown location.

One of the suspects, identified by police as Lopez-Leon, told the victim that he needed to pay $1,900 and he would be let go, the document said.

Lopez-Leon kept the victim in the North Austin apartment while calls were made to the victim's family in an attempt to get money, the affidavit said.

Alvarez faces three felony charges of aggravated kidnapping and is being held at the Travis County Jail with bail set at $225,000. Lopez-Alegria is in federal custody.

Police Lt. Jerry Gonzalez of the human trafficking unit said the suspects' methods are common ways to extort illegal immigrants.

"It's a big problem here," Gonzalez said. "A lot of times, these individuals are too scared to go to law enforcement. We want to help anyone who's a victim, regardless of their status."

pgeorge@statesman.com


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