Tijuana – Three family members have been arrested and charged with kidnapping and extorting people who believed them to be smugglers who would cross them into the United States.

This case, announced Tuesday by the state Attorney General's Office, provides a glimpse of how criminal groups are preying on people desperate to immigrate.

The three suspects were identified as Ruperto León Bravo, 50, and his sons, Juan Carlos and Luis Bernardo León Bernal, 18 and 23 años, respectively.

They were accused of kidnapping, beating and extorting money from at least two people who are from Mexico City and the state of Michoacán.

They are the third criminal group of this type that authorities have arrested in the last four months, resulting in a total of 12 people being freed, the State Attorney General's office announced.

The latest case involves events that occurred in November. León Bravo, who allegedly pretended to be a smuggler of would-be undocumented immigrants, contacted two people in downtown Tijuana who said they

had recently arrived and wanted to cross into the United States.

The "smuggler" told them he would charge $2,200 each to cross them through a mountainous area near Tecate. The would-be immigrants accepted the terms and requested that their family members deposit the money, the agency said.

However, León Bravo allegedly took the two persons to a house in the southeastern neighborhood of Divina Providencia while they waited for the day to cross, he told them, because he wanted to gather more migrants.

One of the families deposited $2,000 while the other person's relatives deposited $800.

The two were held for eight days, until Nov. 11, when they were put on a bus, along with six other migrants.

They were dropped off on a highway near Tecate. There, the men pretending to be smugglers led the group through a sewage canal and up a mountain, where armed accomplices were waiting, their heads covered.

"We're bringing more merchandize," León Bravo allegedly told his sons. The kidnappers took them to a cave in the mountains, where they beat them and demanded their families' phone numbers.

According to the state agency, the kidnappers phoned the families, pretending that their loved ones were already in the United States and asking them to deposit an additional $2,000 for each, which was done. Then they abandoned them on the mountain.

The migrants returned to the highway, where they asked for help to return to Tijuana, and once there they reported what happened to them to state authorities.

The Anti-Kidnapping Unit began an investigation and was able to identify the three alleged kidnappers on Monday. They were detained near the area where the migrants had been held. The three were turned over to judicial authorities for prosecution.

Between December and January, authorities were able to free 12 would-be immigrants who had been kidnapped, beaten and even raped by members of various criminal groups dedicated to extorting money from people desperate to cross into the United States.

Omar.millan@sandiegored.com