Thread: International manhunt on (kidnap - More about Beltran)

Scroll down for more insights into this fugitive's lifestyle before the kidnapping.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs. ... /702260588

International manhunt on
Man is former farmworker and Mexican national who may have fled Florida and U.S.

By MICHAEL A. SCARCELLA

michael.
scarcella@heraldtribune.com

MANATEE COUNTY -- A child abduction case that shocked the nation because of the kidnapper's brazen scheme and the victim's ingenious escape is vexing authorities and leaving parents with a sense of dread.

Authorities on Sunday identified a Mexican national and former farmworker as the target of an international manhunt, wanted in what investigators called a rare case of kidnapping for ransom.

Law enforcement agencies across the country are looking for Vicente Ignacio Beltran-Moreno, 22, who police say plotted a kidnapping rooted in a desperate attempt to generate cash. But unlike most abductors, authorities say he selected his victim at random, snatching a boy at gunpoint Friday in Parrish, in front of other children at a school bus stop.

The ransom plan collapsed because of the wits employed by his 13-year-old victim, Clay Moore, whom detectives affectionately compare with the TV character MacGyver. The resourceful teen saved a safety pin he found in his abductor's pickup truck and later used it to escape from his bonds.

Police raided Beltran-Moreno's home in Samoset early Sunday, finding a ransom note in a garbage can as well as duct tape -- the material used to bind Clay on a farm in rural East Manatee County.

Most child abductions, Sheriff Charlie Wells said, are sexually-motivated or part of family custody battles.

The motive in the abduction of Clay shocked veteran investigators.

"This was an absolute kidnapping for ransom," a rare crime in the United States, Wells said, adding that during 41 years in law enforcement he had never seen a ransom note before.

An incriminating letter

Authorities suspect that Beltran-Moreno left Florida, and perhaps the country.

During the raid on Beltran-Moreno's home at 3719 17th St. Court E., deputies seized the maroon Ford Ranger XLT truck that he reportedly used to abduct Clay.

Detectives found the handwritten ransom note in a garbage can outside the house. It was scribbled on several pages and demanded different amounts of money. The letter does not mention Clay's name.

Detectives do not know whether Beltran-Moreno wrote the note. But the writer presented this threat: surrender money or the victim will be left to die.

Police are working to determine whether anyone else participated in the ransom plot.

"We don't have evidence that there was a lot of pre-planning," Wells said. "We do have evidence that it was planned."

Putting a name on the face

A student at Manatee School for the Arts in Palmetto, Clay was abducted at gunpoint Friday at about 8:50 a.m. a block from his home in the Kingsfield Lakes neighborhood.

His friends scrambled to a nearby house, where police were called. Authorities issued an Amber Alert and launched a statewide search for the boy and his captor.

"I think it was a random act, that this kid provided an opportunity for him. It was easy to abduct him," Wells said Sunday. "He takes him out, ties him up. And obviously what threw everything into a spin is when the kid escaped."

The abductor took Clay to a wooded area at Falkner Farm, off State Road 64 in rural East Manatee County.

Clay, authorities said, used a safety pin and his teeth to escape the heavy-duty tape his abductor used to bind his arms and feet to a tree.

The boy returned to the crop fields Saturday with detectives and provided valuable information about his ordeal, including a description of his captor that was used to make a sketch of the man.

Detectives armed with fliers bearing that sketch questioned migrant farm workers at Falkner throughout the day Saturday.

At first, workers were called in from the fields randomly. Some recognized the man's face, but not his name. One person would suggest another worker, who would offer up another.

The language barrier hindered the question-and-answer sessions. A Sheriff's Office translator helped out, but interviews that would normally take 15 minutes took much longer.

Authorities first got the man's nickname -- "Nacho" -- before a relative of the suspect who works at Falkner identified him as Beltran-Moreno.

Elias Beltran, 56, was called into the farm's office on Saturday, and asked to identify the man in a photo that deputies handed him. The photo was of Beltran's nephew, Beltran-Moreno, who came to the United States about four years ago from Sinaloa, Mexico.

Beltran said he told the deputies Beltran-Moreno's name.

He said deputies also interviewed numerous other people who recalled Beltran-Moreno from the three years that he worked in the fields for Falkner.

"He was a good worker," said Beltran, who said that the job at Falkner had been his nephew's first employment in the United States.

Beltran-Moreno left Falkner about a year ago but continued working as a farmworker, but for another company, Beltran said. Sheriff's officials said Beltran-Moreno had been working for a company that installs pool screens.

A predawn raid

The investigation blossomed swiftly after police put a name to the face. Authorities got a bead on an address in Bradenton, and set up undercover surveillance around the house.

Nobody showed up. Windows were covered with sheets and towels, including one bearing characters from the TV cartoon "Rugrats."

At about 3 a.m., a judge put her name on arrest and search warrants; two hours later, the sheriff's SWAT team barged into the house.

Neighbors heard the commotion and later learned about their neighbor, the target.

"You know you can't get away with something like this," said next-door neighbor Tim McRee, 50, a friend of Clay Moore's family who helped in the search last week. "What was this guy thinking?"

The suspect's history

Authorities on Sunday were researching about 10 variations of Beltran-Moreno's name to determine whether he has a criminal history.

Beltran-Moreno lived in a house owned by his girlfriend's father, Juventino Pureco, who has ties to Falkner-owned farms.

Pureco said that he was not friendly with Beltran-Moreno because he fathered two children with his daughter without getting married or asking his permission, as is customary in Mexico.

Authorities are working with the FBI and other federal agencies in the search for Beltran-Moreno.

"I think when somebody injures a child, we have an obligation to join forces as much as we possibly can and bring that person to justice," Wells said. "And that's what happened here."
_____

Staff writers Robert Eckhart, Chris O'Donnell and Dale White contributed to this report.

Here's more from his associates:

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs. ... /702270510

Migrant workers fear backlash
Officials praise farmworkers for help identifying suspect

By CHRISTINA E. SANCHEZ



christina.
sanchez@heraldtribune.com

MYAKKA CITY — Authorities have showered praise on the Manatee County farmworker community for helping them identify a kidnapping suspect and leading them to his home and critical evidence found there.

After 13-year-old Clay Moore was abducted at gunpoint Friday, then later escaped, police went to migrant worker camps in East Manatee County and showed around a sketch of the kidnapping suspect. Several migrants helped identify the suspect as Vicente Ignacio Beltran-Moreno, a former farmworker who still had many friends in the camps.

But despite the assistance they provided, many farmworkers still worry that if Beltran-Moreno is the kidnapper, as police allege, his actions will further galvanize negative attitudes some locals have toward immigrants, and further alienate the migrants from the local majority populations.

The migrant community lived and worked mostly under the radar until immigration reform forced them from the shadows via protests more than a year ago. Congress is trying to figure out what to do with the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the country, but no major legislation has been passed of late.

Even legal Latino residents say they have felt an increase in discrimination since immigration protests in the spring. One “bad apple” in the community can reflect poorly on all of them, said Francisca, who lives on Falkner Farms but didn’t want to give her last name.

“We’re the bad people around here already, and now with this...,” she said. “People don’t like (migrants) and knowing he worked out here, they are going to hate us even more.”

Tomas, a farmworker who also did not wish to give his last name for fear of backlash, said he has heard a lot of negative talk in Manatee County about Mexicans and farmworkers since the kidnapping.

“I’ve heard comments from other people like, “(Beltran-Moreno’s) Mexican. You have to be careful who you trust,’” said Tomas, who has known Beltran-Moreno for five years. “People are going to be checking in on Falkner Farms.”

Falkner farmworkers live in a tight-knit community where everyone knows each other. They spend long hours together harvesting the cucumber fields, and go home together to the rows of small trailers on the farm. On weekends, they pray for Mass at a makeshift altar at the camp.

Pickup games of soccer are also common, and Beltran-Moreno often participated.

Many of the residents at the camp’s trailer were shocked that the man they all knew as “Nacho” was accused of the kidnapping in Parrish.

The workers, most of whom are Mexican, found it hard to believe that the “serious, shy” 22-year-old Beltran-Moreno could be involved in the crime.

Beltran-Moreno picked crops at Falkner for more than three years. During that time, he was involved in a youth church group.

He left Falkner about a year ago to take a job installing pool screens.

Speculation about why Beltran-Moreno might have kidnapped Clay has circulated throughout the Falkner camps.

Tomas said most people thought it was stress about money and supporting his two children here and the family he still had in Sinola, Mexico.

Beltran-Moreno has an 18-month-old son and a 5-month-old daughter who he lived with in the Samoset home that police raided Sunday.

“He earned good money, but sometimes when business was slow, not as much money was coming in,” Tomas said. “I believe he will come back and turn himself in if he did it. His conscience will bring him back.”

Laura, a farmworker who knew Beltran-Moreno well, said she had never known him to be in trouble

“It’s something incredible. He was not a bad guy,” said Laura. “He was a hard worker.”

She said some people had preconceived ideas about farmworkers prior to the kidnapping, so she’s not too worried about things gettting worse.

“We’re already known as the bad guys,” Laura said.

“People are going to be checking in on Falkner Farms.”

I'd say that would be a good place to start.

Laugh-of-the-day:

“He earned good money, but sometimes when business was slow, not as much money was coming in,” Tomas said. “I believe he will come back and turn himself in if he did it. His conscience will bring him back.