Thread: Man Kidnapped in San Diego Taken to Tijuana

http://www.signonsandiego.com

See Americans Warned Not To Travel To Mexico Article

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-22799.html

Cab owner details abduction in S.D., escape in Tijuana

Kidnappings keep investigators busy
By Anna Cearley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
April 14, 2006

José Luis Cano was back at work driving his taxicab this week after surviving a kidnapping that started in San Diego and ended when he escaped the same day from a Tijuana house where he was being held.

“It's difficult to describe how I feel,” he said. “I felt powerless, I felt fearful, and when I was in the house I focused on observing and listening to everything so I could get away.”

Two men were arrested after Cano escaped and reported the crime to Mexican authorities.

It's been a particularly busy week for kidnapping investigators on both sides of the border. Cano is one of several U.S. businessmen snatched off the streets of Tijuana and southern San Diego since April 6.

Two men were grabbed in Tijuana as they drove to work in separate incidents. One of them, Yong Hak Kim, escaped his kidnappers. The other, George Chu, remained missing. Although his disappearance has been described as a possible kidnapping, there is speculation that Chu was arrested by an elite Mexican federal force and taken to Mexico City. Mexican authorities aren't commenting on the matter.

North of the border, men dressed as police abducted a man in front of his Bonita house yesterday. The FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration are involved in that investigation. Authorities said the armed men who abducted Abelino Inzunza were not police officers.

Cano's case, which is being investigated north of the border by the San Diego Police Department, sheds light on the phenomenon of people being kidnapped in the United States and brought to Mexico. Such cases aren't so unusual, according to Jan Caldwell, an FBI spokeswoman.

She wouldn't provide statistics, and would only say the agency investigates a range of cross-border kidnappings involving U.S. citizens. Many times, she said, border kidnappings escape public notice because they are dealt with quietly.

“There are binational kidnappings of business executives, drug-involved abductions and parental kidnappings, so it's across the board,” she said.

San Diego police Lt. Mike Angus said his agency sometimes investigates cases involving smugglers attempting to extort more money from the family members of people they are bringing into the United States. Police also investigate threats to people on the U.S. side of the border who are threatened with kidnapping if they don't wire money to Mexico. He said a case like Cano's is rare.

The U.S. State Department has issued no special travel advisories, but U.S. and Mexican authorities say that tourists aren't typically targeted by kidnappers because they don't have an established routine that can be tracked – such as going to and from work.

Most kidnap victims prefer to maintain silence after surviving their ordeals. Cano, who is 40 and lives in Imperial Beach, said he decided to go public about his case after he saw an article about his kidnapping in which San Diego police – who did not name him – said the victim in this case was a suspected people smuggler.

“That was hurtful,” he said. “I am a man who works hard and I have been able to build my business with a lot of sacrifice. But people are suspicious.”

Angus said the information came from a person who talked to police, but it hasn't been proved.

Cano said he believes his kidnappers were after his money. He owns a taxicab business called ABC Cab. He said he saved money working as a trucker and started the company two years ago. He now has nine cabs, he said, and some of his business involves cross-border transportation.

His ordeal began about 10 a.m. Friday as he parked his cab in a driveway. A van blocked him from exiting and three people pulled him from his car and pushed him into theirs. The men were armed with screwdrivers, he said.

“They broke the window, they took me out while beating me, and then they started to strangle me,” he said. “I was fighting them, but I lost consciousness.”

He woke up when he was in the van heading into Tijuana. His captors kept him in a house near a mountain called Cerro Colorado along the city's outskirts.

Cano said his kidnappers were asking for $30,000. He would not say whether that amount, or anything close to it, was paid. He said he was kept in the home's bathroom, but his kidnappers didn't keep him physically restrained.

“They threatened that if I wanted to run, they would let me but they had people out there,” he said.

Later that evening, about 10 p.m., Cano said he sprinted out the door while his captors were watering the garden. He ran to a corner and flagged down a taxi driver, who drove him to a nearby store so he could call police.

Cano said he visited numerous agencies trying to find the right one to report his case. About two hours later, federal authorities drove him out to the area where he had been held so he could identify the house.

Police arrested two suspects, Cano said.

An official with the federal Attorney General's Office in Tijuana familiar with the case confirmed that two arrests were made. The official declined to give his name because of the agency's strict policy against commenting with the media.

This wasn't the first time Cano found himself confronting suspected criminals – and managing to overcome them. He was honored by the Chula Vista Police Department in 2002 for detaining a bank robbery suspect and restraining him until police could arrive.



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Anna Cearley: (619) 542-4595; anna.cearley@uniontrib.com

These kidnappers are as bad as the Taliban! By the way, why were some of those marchers/protesters wearing bandana's around their faces?

Like this one?

Here's another kidnapping that occured with possible connections to Mexico.

http://www.signonsandiego.com

Bonita man kidnapped by trio dressed as police


By Joe Hughes
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

5:13 p.m. April 13, 2006

BONITA – A 38-year-old man was kidnapped in front of his house Thursdaymorning by three men armed with guns and dressed as police, authorities confirmed.
The victim, Abelino Inzunza, was about to drive away from his Central Avenue residence at 7:50 a.m. when the men, wearing blue clothes and vests with the word “Police” on them, blocked his exit, witnesses told Sheriff's deputies.

Inzunza was pulled out of his silver van, thrown to the ground, handcuffed and put in the back seat of another vehicle, the witnesses said.

Sheriff's Lt. Kirby Beyer confirmed the kidnapping.

“There was no law-enforcement action involved,” Beyer said. “Mr. Inzunza was forcibly abducted from his van.

“There has been no communication with the abductors and no motive established,” Beyer said. The FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration were assisting in the followup.

Two women, longtime neighbors on their morning walk, witnessed the incident, providing descriptions of the assailants and their vehicle.

They said they saw one of the kidnappers point a gun at Inzunza, telling him in English, “You're coming with us.”

After the men drove off in a minivan with temporary license plates, Inzunza's wife and four children ran from the house, the neighbors said.

“She was totally panicked, screaming and the children were crying for their father,” said Linda Blairforth, who lives across the street. She said she heard the commotion and called 911. Then she and others tried to comfort the woman and the children, including a 9-month-old who was still in the house.

Officials at the border were alerted that the vehicle – a blue or green newer model minivan – possibly was headed into Mexico. It was last seen going west on Central Avenue.

Residents in the quiet 25-year-old neighborhood, near the Bonita Golf Club and the Sweetwater River, were at a loss to explain what happened.

Many said they did not really know the family, newcomers who kept to themselves. One said Inzunza was involved in real estate in Tijuana.

The house was sold in the past few months. The Inzunzas were renting.

When they moved in, several trucks with Baja California plates were observed at the house, thought to belong to people doing work on the residence.

The couple and children were rarely seen, and trash cans never came out to the curb, neighbors said.

Authorities did not release any other information about Inzunza or the investigation. Anyone with information about the case was asked to call the Sheriff's Department at (85 974-2321.



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Joe Hughes: (619) 542-4591; joe.hughes@uniontrib.com