Two migrants from Honduras were involved in kidnapping another migrant, according to federal prosecutors, who said they held him for ransom and demanded payment from his family in southern California.
It was a part of a scheme in which Darwin Jeovany Palma Pastrana, 30, and Eduar Isrrael Sauceda Nuñez, 25, worked together with others to kidnap migrants entering the U.S. from Mexico to hold them for ransom, prosecutors said. Both men have been living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, unlawfully, according to officials.
Palma is charged with one count of conspiracy, one count of kidnapping, one count of interstate communication containing a demand or request for ransom, and one count of making a threat by interstate communication, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said in a Sept. 16 news release.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges at an arraignment Sept. 13, according to prosecutors. A trial date has been set for Nov. 5.
Sauceda is a fugitive and hasn’t been apprehended as of Sept. 16, officials said.
He’s charged with one count of conspiracy, one count of kidnapping, one count of interstate communication containing demand or request for ransom, and one count of transportation of aliens within the U.S. for private financial gain, prosecutors said.
Information regarding the men’s legal representation wasn’t immediately available.
According to Palma and Sauceda’s indictment, their co-conspirators were paid to help migrants cross the U.S.-Mexico border and then they drove the migrants to “stash” houses in Phoenix, El Paso, Texas, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Once there, the migrants’ phones would be taken away, prosecutors said.
During the investigation, 57 migrants were found inside a “stash” house in Albuquerque, prosecutors said.
Palma and his accomplices lived near the stash houses in New Mexico “and kept large sums of cash and firearms available,” according to prosecutors.
Meanwhile, Sauceda and others would drive migrants to their friends and family in Los Angeles and other areas in the U.S., prosecutors said.
Palma and Sauceda “allegedly helped to smuggle migrants and then take advantage of them by demanding ransom from the victims’ families to secure their release,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement.
Migrant’s relative threatened
On April 1, Palma told Sauceda that one of the migrants who had been kidnapped, a man from Guatemala who came to the U.S. from Mexico, had to pay $1,500 to be reunited with his family in California, prosecutors said.
Sauceda had the man reach out to his relative and ask them to meet outside of a Jack in the Box restaurant in Norwalk, located in Los Angeles County, according to prosecutors.
When the man’s relative arrived at the restaurant’s parking lot, Sauceda was there and locked the man inside his car, prosecutors said.
Sauceda demanded a $1,500 ransom payment from his family member, then drove away with the man, according to prosecutors.
Afterward, Palma contacted the man’s relative, seeking the $1,500 payment, prosecutors said.
He told her that if she didn’t pay, the man would be “returned to Mexico” and “suggested (he) would be killed there,” according to prosecutors.
Later, Sauceda was under the impression that the man’s relative would pay the $1,500 and drove back to the Jack in the Box, where authorities ultimately pulled him over and arrested him, prosecutors said.
During the traffic stop, Sauceda put $9,290 in cash and receipts showing money transfers to people outside of the U.S. in his center console, according to prosecutors.
The next day, Palma messaged the man’s relative on WhatsApp and threatened to kill her, according to the indictment.
“You damn woman, they arrested my driver, you damn woman … I’ll kill you one way or another,” Palma wrote in part, the indictment shows.
Palma was arrested in New Mexico on August 21, prosecutors said.
In February 2022, the FBI’s El Paso Field Office called attention to extortion calls targeting migrants who have paid people to transport them across the U.S.-Mexico border, as well as their families.
“Many of these victims don’t report the incident because of fears they will be deported due to their immigration status,” the agency said in a news release.
When the FBI investigates these cases, the agency emphasized “the focus of the investigation is not on a person’s immigration status, but instead the extortion crime.”
Anyone who has information on Sauceda’s location is asked to “contact the FBI or the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate,” Akil Davis, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said in a statement.
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