Threats of having their fingers cut off, gun barrels shoved in their mouths, unconsciousness from hanging, “tehuacanazos,” and other tortures were experienced by the five victims of the kidnapping of four men who claimed to belong to the Fourth Generation Sinaloa Cartel.
The terror was described by four of the victims and the mothers of the two kidnapped Americans, who were asked for ransom money even before being picked up by state police, according to information provided at the initial hearing.
As of 4:00 p.m. yesterday, three of the four defendants had been sent to pretrial detention. The fourth had a separate hearing, as his arrest was based on an arrest warrant, and the others were arrested in flagrante delicto. The separation of hearings was, however, requested by the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Strategic Operations, which even faces a fine for delaying the fourth hearing, as they only had one investigation file, without a copy for the defense attorney for the second session, as they had been informed that there would be one.
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The charges against Omar Ricardo L. F. (22 years old), Marco Irving G. L. (18), and Daniel Fermín B. R. (22) are that on April 11 at 9:00 p.m., they deprived the victims D. R. O. (18 years old) and J. C. L. (17), both American citizens, of their liberty outside the Pockets restaurant-bar. They forced them into a car and then drove them to a home in the Manuel J. Clouthier neighborhood, where a woman originally from China, a woman from Tabasco, and a man from Guatemala were also kidnapped. At the safe house, a man identified as “El Rojo” and allegedly Cristian Eirin S. M. (the fourth defendant) were responsible for making the calls, text messages, and videos demanding cash for the victims’ release, while the rest are identified as those who monitored and tortured them.
Thanks to the investigative information presented to request their indictment, it was learned that the man, originally from Guatemala, arrived on April 6, and the woman from Tabasco on the 9th. Both sought to travel to the United States with the help of human traffickers, but encountered alleged criminals who arrested them and demanded money from their families for their release. No version of the story is known about the woman from China, as she did not file a complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office.
The victim from Tabasco, A. M. L. I., said she was held incommunicado, held at gunpoint with a gun to the head, slapped, and choked until unconscious. E. O. H. P., the Guatemalan man, was threatened with having his ear cut off if his wife didn’t pay more than 100,000 pesos.
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They had a job
It was April 11th, and D. R. O. received a call from his “boss,” nicknamed “El Nephew.” He told him, around 3:00 p.m., that he had a job for him: to smuggle money from Juárez to El Paso. Someone would give it to him at Pockets Torres.
D. R. O. contacted A. P. and the other victim, J. C. L., to accompany him, and they did. “It wasn’t anything bad,” D. assured A.
Once outside the restaurant, a car with three men approached. Allegedly, Daniel Fermín was driving the Nissan March of the alleged couriers with the money, Marcos Irving was the co-driver, and Omar Ricardo was riding in the back.
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The three told D. and J. to get in the car to count the money. The third, A. P., ignored it out of mistrust, but the other two did. It was a mistake.
“I thought they were trustworthy, but we got in and they pointed guns at us. ‘You’re done, get down,’ they told us,” said J. C. L., the teenager. It was a kidnapping.
D. R. O. tried to defend himself and take the gun away from one of them, but only received a blow to the head that started bleeding.
Mothers See the Torture
In the home, located at 1719-6 Desierto de Lut Street, they were tied hand and foot, blindfolded, and left on a mattress in one of the bedrooms. At times, they asked for their families’ phone numbers to call them and ask for money.
The teenager was beaten on video “so (my mother) could see it wasn’t a game,” he said. They took him to a bathtub and poured water over his face, which was covered with a towel. They told him they were going to cut off his friend’s fingers, but it never happened.
“That’s what they got for working with “El Nephew,” they told D. R. O.
The alleged kidnappers repeatedly told the victims’ mothers not to be too clever, to pay up or there would be consequences. They said they worked for the Fourth Generation Sinaloa Cartel, and if they wanted, they would hang the victims from a bridge for not paying.
Judge Apolinar Juárez Castro, acting as Control Judge, declared the arrest and detention of the three defendants lawful in the first session, allowed the charges, and asked if they wished to testify, which they refused. At the defendants’ request, he scheduled the continuation of the initial hearing for April 21 to determine whether they would be charged. He also set 12 months of pretrial detention, justified by the risk of flight, for the victims and for the investigation.
Source: diario
