Police free three U.S. citizens kidnapped in Baja

Couple is accused of masterminding abduction

Por: SanDiegoRed.com 15 Noviembre 2011 @ 10:23 pm
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TIJUANA – Three U.S. citizens – a 26-year-old woman and her grandparents – were freed from kidnappers by police, authorities announced Tuesday.

The municipal public safety department said the incident began on Monday night around 10 at a house in the Mariano Matamoros neighborhood, on the city’s eastside, when the three arrived from the United States to collect rent from a couple.

Another family member who traveled with them, an 18-year-old woman, stayed in their Nissan Pathfinder while the three went to house.

She reported that when the three arrived at the door they were met with armed men who pulled them inside the house. Then a shot rang out.

That’s when the teen fled in the vehicle and called an emergency phone line, according to a police press release.

Based on her report, and with her permission to enter the family’s property, police mounted an operation that resulted in the release of her sister and their grandparents, ages 68 and 69.

The gunmen had bound their hands and feet and had threatened them with rifles, police said. But they were quickly freed and their alleged captors detained.

Police identified the main suspects as Claudia López Tapia, 35, and César Apolonio Escalera, 36, who rented the house. The couple allegedly had requested that the family collect the money early because the pair would soon be leaving the city.

They had their feet and hands bound, too, but it was to create the illusion that they were also victims when in reality they had masterminded the kidnapping, the police said.

Six other suspects were detained while trying to escape. They were identified as Miguel Sandoval Madrigal, 42; MarÃ*a Guadalupe Monreal Rosales, 34; Juan Antonio Muñoz Herrera, 32; José Medina Quiroz, 33; Miriam Sujey Beltrán Aguirre, 35, and ValentÃ*n Gutiérrez Estrada, 53.

As is customary, the identity of kidnapping victims is not revealed.

Two .22 caliber rifles were seized inside the home, with one spent round. The case was turned over to state authorities for prosecution.

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