Sister says brother being held for ransom

December 14, 2011 9:16 AM
By MADELINE BUCKLEY/The Brownsville Herald

A woman told police her brother was kidnapped Monday by men who helped him enter the country illegally last week, a police report said.

The woman said her brother left their Brownsville residence on the way to a job interview downtown. Several hours later, she received a call from two men asking for a ransom of $3,000 in exchange for her brother, the report said.

Brownsville police worked on the case with federal agents, but since the alleged kidnapping happened in Mexico officials say they will not be investigating the case.

The sister was advised to file a complaint with the Mexican police.

The woman, 23, reported that the men who kidnapped her brother, 21, had helped him illegally cross into Brownsville from Matamoros on Dec. 8. She supplied investigators with one man’s first name and a nickname for the other.

The men on the phone told the sister they had her brother, and allowed him to speak on the phone for several seconds, the report said. The woman told police all she heard her brother say was, "Estoy aqui."

The woman said her brother had gone to look for a job at a warehouse but never showed up. He had previously worked as a cab driver in Matamoros.

Investigators tried to trace the number the woman said the men called from, but had not been successful at the time the police report was filed.

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