Two men indicted for ‘cartel related’ kidnapping of Smith County man

SMITH COUNTY, Texas ( KETK ) — Two men have been indicted for aggravated kidnapping for ransom or reward in an incident Smith County Sheriff Larry Smith said is directly related to cartel activities.

According to an affidavit, on March 17 at around 4:06 p.m., the sheriff’s office received a call of a woman claiming her husband was taken at gunpoint by two men in a red Honda passenger car. The woman’s sons reportedly followed the Honda and pulled over at a donut shop on Highway 271.

The accused kidnappers, identified by the sheriff’s office as Julio Cesar Cordova and Walybert Eron Cordova-Rascon, allegedly threatened the sons with a gun and told them they had to pay a $10,000 ransom to get their father back.

The victim’s wife reportedly received a phone call from the suspects where she told them she did not have $10,000. The suspects then demanded $5,000 and whatever she could collect.

Officials were able to trace the call to the Fort Worth-Arlington area and made contact with Fort Worth PD where they located the Honda near the location of the last ping made from the call.

Officers made contact with the suspects and found the victim in the back seat of the car. During a search of the vehicle officials reportedly found two guns, narcotics, drug paraphernalia and what appeared to be a tracking device.

Sheriff Larry Smith believes the kidnapping is related to the cartel.

“The kidnapping we had this last week is directly related to the cartel, no doubt about it, 100% directly related to the cartel. They try to extort money out of a citizen here in Tyler, Smith County who probably was involved with the cartel,” Smith said. “He just better thank his Lord that we have the detectives we’ve got here, that we’re able to catch him and work with other agencies to free him when he got to Fort Worth.”

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