TX. Sheriff Says Kidnapping Ring From Mexico Is Highly Trained

Sheriff Says Kidnapping Ring From Mexico Is Highly Trained

Posted: Apr 2, 2012 6:35 PM
Updated: Apr 2, 2012 6:46 PM

HIDALGO COUNTY - A Hidalgo County man who was the victim of a kidnapping could already be in Mexico. Investigators in Hidalgo County believe he's the latest victim of a highly trained kidnapping ring.

Hidalgo County investigators believe there's a group of professional kidnappers out there, and they're good at what they do.

A scorched mini-van is all the sheriff's department has to go on in the case of Armando Morfin right now.

"The reason the suspects burned the vehicle is because you're actually burning all the trace evidence that was left behind," says Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño.

The 40-year-old was abducted from his home off FM 493 Friday. Investigators think Morfin was immediately taken to Mexico, his van left to burn less than two miles from his home.

"They tied up the victim's wife, the children. They waited for him. The victim gets home, they kidnap him, they extract him in a matter of minutes," says Trevino.

The accuracy of the kidnapping means something to Treviño and his investigators. The three men seemed highly trained and knew how to get their man.

"It was a highly trained, very precise extraction team. They went in wearing green military uniforms, the green masks the military and some police officers use," says Trevino.

Treviño says this wasn't a random abduction. Morfin served time for drug possession charges. That could have made him a target.

"It is alarming to us, and it should be alarming to everybody, that there's teams, highly trained, precise teams getting hired to make just this," says Trevino.

Hope of finding Morfin alive is slowly fading.

"There's a rule in CSI that states, when you walk into a place you always leave something. And when you leave you always take something with you," says Trevino.

His fate rests on the evidence pulled from this van. The sheriff couldn't say what evidence was pulled from the burnt van fearing it would jeopardize the investigation. He did say he needs your help tonight.

If you have any information on Morfin and his whereabouts, call Hidalgo County Crime Stoppers at 956-668-TIPS or your nearest police department.

Sheriff Says Kidnapping Ring From Mexico Is Highly Trained | KRGV.com | CHANNEL 5 NEWS | Breaking News Breaking Stories

South Texas woman appeals to drug cartel for return of husband

• Associated Press
• Posted May 28, 2012 at 11:34 a.m., updated May 28, 2012 at 11:34 a.m.

McALLEN —A South Texas woman is appealing for mercy from Mexico's brutal Zetas drug cartel, which she believes is behind the March 30 abduction of her husband by three gunmen who stormed into their home.

Marina Morfin tells The Monitor of McAllen the three smashed through their glass front door and held her and her 4-year-old daughter at gunpoint. She says when her husband Armando Morfin arrived home, they took him away.

"Please, just let him go," she said in an interview with the newspaper. "I don't know what he's done wrong that they had to take him away. Just let him go. He's sick. He's more use to us than to them. His kids need him. His family needs him. I need him."

The three who stormed the house acted professionally, she said. They wore matching camouflage outfits, including caps and face masks, and spoke only fluent Spanish.

"They told me who they were and they told me not to look at them, so I closed my eyes," she said. "I was so scared. I really thought they were going to kill me."

Instead, she said they bound and gagged her and her daughter and waited until Armando Morfin arrived home.

"Next thing I know, I hear him coming and he gets off the car," she said of her husband. "And that's when he opens the door and yells out loud, `What the (expletive)?"'

After a struggle, the three overpowered the man and took him, the family's cellphones and their car keys, she said.

"Thank God that they didn't touch me," she said. "They didn't do anything to me or to my daughter. I just don't know what they're doing to my husband."

Armando Morfin, 40, has not been seen since. He owns a landscaping business that provided "no luxuries," said his wife, whom The Monitor reported has moved out of Texas. Doctors had diagnosed him in December, she said, as having multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that attacks the nervous system.

Morfin drew an 8-yaer prison sentence in 1999 after pleading guilty to felony drug possession, according to a Texas Department of Public Safety database.

Morfin's family is offering a monetary reward for anyone with information as to his whereabouts, The Monitor reported.

"I have to have hope because if there's no hope, there's no life," his wife said. "I know he's going to come back to me. He has to. He has three wonderful kids who love him, and I adore him."
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Information from: The Monitor, TheMonitor.com

South Texas woman appeals to drug cartel for return of husband » Corpus Christi Caller-Times

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