Four men were arrested and charged with kidnapping migrants who had been smuggled into the United States and demanding that their relatives pay ransom for their release, officials said Monday.
The men have pleaded not guilty after being arraigned, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles said. A fifth man has been charged in the case but is still on the run, the prosecutor said in a statement.
The defendants took the four migrants from a gas station in Arizona last year and later held them hostage in a house in California, prosecutors said. The suspects allegedly used one of the hostage’s cell phones to demand a ransom from the victim’s family member in exchange for their release.
Three of the hostages were later moved to a motel where one escaped through a second-floor bathroom window and ran to a nearby store, the statement said. One of the suspects followed him and “body-slammed the victim, placed him in a choke hold and repeatedly punched him in the face in an attempt to kidnap him again,” the statement said.
United States Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles
The defendants were identified as Miguel Angel Avila, 22, of Hemet; Omar Avila Salmeron, 41, of South Los Angeles; Jose Jaime Garcia, 20, of San Jacinto; Gabriel Michel Becerra, 22, of Palmdale; and Jose Alfredo Moreno Gonzalez, 21, of Oak Hills. Becerra is currently on the run.
“These defendants allegedly preyed on victims who attempted to immigrate to our country by demanding ransom from the victims’ families in exchange for their release,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California said in a statement.
On March 23, 2023, Avila, Garcia and Becerra allegedly drove one of the hostages to a gas station, where they took $11,000 in cash from the victim’s brother in exchange for the victim’s release.
Migrants seeking to enter the United States are often kidnapped by gangs and drug cartels in Mexico and are also known to be vulnerable to kidnapping in the United States.