Thread: 2 from U.S. are suspects in Tijuana kidnapping

2 from U.S. are suspects in Tijuana kidnapping

By Sandra Dibble
Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. May 27, 2009

TIJUANA — A brother and sister from Southern California are among four people detained in Tijuana in connection with the kidnapping of a 19-year-old hardware store clerk who was held for $1 million ransom.

Teddy Toledo Garay, 20, and his sister, 17, were among four suspects detained Monday when soldiers raided a house east of downtown Tijuana and rescued the victim, the Mexican military said in a statement released yesterday.

The military yesterday said the suspects were linked to a drug gang headed by Teodoro Eduardo GarcÃ*a Simental, known as Tres Letras or El Teo. GarcÃ*a, a former lieutenant in the Arellano Félix cartel, broke away last year, but the two groups have since agreed to co-exist, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said.

Interviewed at the Morelos military base, the clerk said four men grabbed him while he was working in the store, which is south of downtown Tijuana in the neighborhood known as Colonia Salvatierra. The kidnappers kept asking if he was the store owner's son, the clerk said, and were demanding $1 million in ransom.

“I never imagined this would happen to me,â€

1,000,000 to 1 odds these two are anchor babies carrying on with those famous family values!