ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents on Oct. 4, rescued three Guatemalan undocumented non-citizens who were being held for ransom. Their suspected hostage takers were also arrested.
The Albuquerque Police Department assisted with the rescue of a mother and her two daughters – ages 5 and 9.
In the course of their investigation, special agents encountered 58 undocumented non-citizens.
Marcelo Alonso-Almaraz, 32, and Eloisa Almaraz-Vasquez, 35, both undocumented non-citizens from Mexico, are charged with human smuggling and hostage taking. Alonso-Almaraz is also charged with possession of a firearm. Both made an initial appearance in federal court Oct.4, and attended a preliminary and detention hearing today, where they were ordered held without bond pending their judicial proceedings.
The three Guatemalans were allegedly being held for ransom in an apartment in the 500 block of Palomas Drive in Albuquerque. According to court documents, a relative residing in Arizona paid $30,000 to have her sister and two nieces smuggled into the United States. However, the smugglers demanded an additional $6,000 to release them.
“What started as a joint effort by HSI and the Albuquerque Police Department to rescue kidnapping victims, revealed not just the illicit movement of people, but a criminal network involved in extortion,” said HSI El Paso Special Agent in Charge Francisco B. Burrola. “Human smuggling is a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, and the individuals being smuggled are viewed as cargo by the transnational criminal organizations, whose nefarious activities demonstrate a total disregard for both our laws and for human life.”
On Friday, HSI Albuquerque special agents conducted an enforcement action and rescued the kidnapping victims, apprehended 10 undocumented non-citizens, and arrested Alonso-Almaraz and Almaraz-Vasquez off of I-40 in a commercial parking lot, where the hostage takers were to receive the additional smuggling fee.
Later in the day, special agents executed a search warrant at the apartment on Palomas Driver where they located an additional 48 undocumented non-citizens, seized nearly $47,000 in U.S. currency, ledgers, a firearm and a loaded magazine. Forty of the undocumented non-citizens were from Mexico; 14 from Guatemala, and four from Ecuador. Court documents show that there was an inadequate food supply, lack of water and severe overcrowding in the apartment.
HSI
News by Breaking911
