Thread: Two Charged In Gastonia With Holding Illegal Immigrants For

http://www.wral.com/news/5131873/detail.html

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Two Mexican men were arrested in Gastonia after police said they smuggled two women into the United States and then demanded more money from their husbands.

Jeszs Reyes Alcala, 20, and Mario Manzano Cruz, 36, were charged with two counts of second-degree kidnapping. Manzano also faces one count of extortion. They were held in the Gaston County Jail on bonds of $500,000 each.

Manzano denied kidnapping or trafficking in the women during a jail interview with The Charlotte Observer.

Gastonia police said the women were smuggled across the U.S. border at the request of their husbands so the couples could reunite. Manzano tried to collect $3,300 before agreeing to release the women, his arrest warrant said.

Such cases are common in North Carolina because Mexican immigrants usually turn to friends to help them collect the ransom instead of asking police for help, said Angeles Ortega-Moore, executive director of the Charlotte-based Latin American Coalition. About 300,000 illegal immigrants live in North Carolina, according to a Pew Hispanic Center study.

Manzano said he and Reyes had an agreement with Mario Ceballos Castillo, 21, of Charlotte that they'd get $1,200 for bringing two women across the border. Manzano said he and Ceballos met in their hometown of Xalapa, Mexico, and have been friends for some time. Ceballos couldn't be reached for comment.

Manzano said he agreed to bring the women to North Carolina in part because he needed a job and heard recent hurricanes had created a surplus of construction work.

The two women and Manzano crossed the border in Arizona, he said, met Reyes in Phoenix and then drove toward North Carolina. They stopped at an Interstate 85 exit in Gaston County and met with Ceballos, who told them he didn't have the money, Manzano said.

Manzano said he then agreed to release Ceballos' wife _ Marma del Carmen Hernandez Torres, 31 _ but keep the other man's wife until he was paid.

Gastonia Police Capt. Cindy Isenhour said Ceballos called early Tuesday morning and reported the woman was being held against her will. Police found the suspects with the women at a Gastonia address near the interstate, Isenhour said. The men were later arrested and the women released, she said.

People who trade human beings and use them to make money engage in human trafficking, a violation of federal law. Police are still collecting evidence in the case and immigration officials don't know if they'll present it to federal prosecutors, said Jeff Jordan, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement assistant special agent for North Carolina.

The men were later arrested and the women released

They're not deporting the women? Shouldn't some kind of accessory or conspiricy charges be brought against the husbands? What about deporting the husbands??

Bet they're well on their way now to two new anchors!