Seven charged with kidnapping

November 18, 2011 9:23 PM
By ILDEFONSO ORTIZ/The Monitor

SAN JUAN — Chains rattled as four men and three women all shackled together shuffled into a courtroom to stand before a municipal judge and face formal charges in connection with the kidnapping of two illegal immigrants.

The group went before San Juan Municipal Judge Eloy Hernandez, who formally charged all seven with two counts of aggravated kidnapping and set bail at $500,000 each before sending them to the Hidalgo County Jail.

The group was identified as Pedro Perez, 23, Osiel Castillo, 43, Juan Aguilar, 38, Luis Aguilar, 39, Sandra Rodriguez, 35, Roxana Leal, 24, and Beatriz Segoviano, 40.

According to Police Chief Juan Gonzalez, the group held a man and a woman in their 20s at a house in McAllen and was extorting money from the victims’ family. The victims had been smuggled from Mexico approximately three weeks ago.

Authorities said that San Juan investigators learned that the group is just one cell that responds to an organized crime group in Mexico who had ordered the kidnappings.

Their job was to hold the people and extort as much money as they could from potential victims and their relatives, Gonzalez said.

The families of the two victims reportedly paid the kidnappers more than $4,000; investigators recovered $3,400 from one of the suspects.

Police believe there may be more victims throughout the Rio Grande Valley and are continuing their investigation.

Police rescued the couple in an operation that began late Wednesday and concluded early Thursday morning with a raid at a house on the 2000 block of West Ebony Street in McAllen.

During the raid, two men barricaded themselves in the attic, forcing authorities to use less-than-lethal chemicals to force the men to come out and surrender.

During the operation San Juan Police had help from McAllen Police, Texas Rangers and the FBI. The case was referred by Pharr police after one of the victims was able to contact an off-duty police officer.

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