A Honduran man living illegally in New Mexico has been federally indicted for allegedly conspiring to kidnap an illegal Guatemalan immigrant and demanding a ransom payment from the man’s SoCal family as part of a multi-state operation.
According to the United States Department of Justice , Darwin Jeovany Palma Pastrana conspired with others to kidnap and hold for ransom migrants illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
Once they were in the U.S., the migrants were driven to stash houses in Phoenix, El Paso, Texas and Albuquerque, New Mexico; upon arriving, the migrants’ cell phones were seized and not returned to them.
Other times, Palma and his co-conspirators, including another illegal Honduran immigrant named Eduar Isrrael Sauceda Nuñez, would drive migrants to various locations – including Los Angeles – to reunite them with family and friends.
Trump threatens to withhold federal firefighting aid, blames Newsom
In one specific incident this year, Palma told Sauceda that a Guatemalan man who illegally entered the U.S. from Mexico had to have his family pay them $1,500 to secure his release.