Group intended to carry out kidnapping, prosecutors say
Alleged drug ring targeted foe's father

By Greg Gross (Contact) Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. April 17, 2009

San Diego — A dramatic arrest in Lemon Grove on Tuesday by an FBI SWAT team may have thwarted a drug-related kidnapping in Los Angeles, according to a federal complaint unsealed yesterday.

According to the complaint, the would-be kidnappers had targeted a man who allegedly had helped steal about 2,500 pounds of marijuana from them. When they couldn't find him, they opted to kidnap his father instead.

They were on their way to Los Angeles to abduct the father when the SWAT team stopped them, the complaint said.

Six men and one woman named in the complaint were arraigned yesterday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ruben Brooks. They were identified as Armando Gonzalez Heredia, Gerardo Martinez Velasco, Ricardo Perez, Gabriel Perez, Nuria Martinez Alvarado, Hector Peraza and Humberto Rosas Alvarez. There was no information on their hometowns or nationalities.

According to the complaint, an FBI strike force began to focus last year on a drug smuggling ring allegedly headed by Gonzalez.

The agents later learned that the Gonzalez ring was targeting a man identified only as “Edgar Alvarez,â€