Guatemalan National pleads guilty to Upstate kidnapping

The effects of the Southern Border Crisis can be felt everywhere and that's certainly the case as a man from Guatemala is facing a life sentencing for kidnapping a teenage girl from an Upstate home.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says 35 year old Bernardino De Jesus Ramirez, also known as Carlos Mednoza of Guatemala pleaded to guilty to kidnapping and transporting an illegal immigrant.

Court records say Ramirez paid for a 16 year old girl to be trafficked into the U.S. from his native country and he expected that the girl would live with him. She was detained and taken into custody after being found as an unaccompanied child crossing into the country.

The 16 year old was released to her uncle who lives in the Upstate. In April of 2023 Ramirez drove from his house in Kansas City to the Upstate. He told the girl her smuggling debt would increase and she would be deported if she did not go with him. The girl was recovered by police from Ramirez's home in Missouri, the following day.

The Greenville County Sheriff's Office, Newberry PD and SLED all assisted the Dept. Of Homeland Security in the investigation. Ramirez will be sentenced at a later date. He faces life in federal prison.