TIJUANA Four federal agents have been detained for allegedly kidnapping a business owner and three employees, authorities announced Friday.
An anonymous phone call made Thursday afternoon to the police hotline reported that a group of men had arrived at a house in the eastside neighborhood of Valle Bonito and identified themselves as agents of the Federal Agency of Investigations. They proceeded to kidnap the transportation business owner and three of his employees, according to an announcement from Baja California's Department of Public Safety.
Based on the information it received, the department mounted an operation in the Río zone, where one of the kidnappers claimed the ransom at a restaurant located on avenida Paseo de los Héroes and General Abelardo L. Rodríguez Street.
The kidnappers demanded $15,000 to release the victims, the release said.
The department said a man was detained at the restaurant, Héctor Manuel Ortiz Falcón, 33, who allegedly was carrying 17,370 pesos (about $1,400) that had been part of the ransom as well as his badge indicating he worked for Mexico's Attorney General's Office.
His accomplices were detained hours later, the release said.
The federal Attorney General's Office, known as the PGR, issued a statement Friday afternoon from Mexico City reporting that it had begun an investigation of Ortiz Falcón, as well as fellow federal agents Francisco Javier Campos Aguilar, Agustín Guerrero Gutiérrez and Fredi Antonio Pérez García.
They are being investigated in the kidnapping of the four people, who in turn are allegedly involved in the illegal storage and sale of gasoline.
In a press conference Friday, Baja California Attorney General Rommel Moreno would not give details about the case against the agents. He did, however, stress the importance of the program Mexico's Attorney General Marisela Morales is conducting to weed out corrupt agents in the federal law enforcement system.
Baja California is familiar with such a "cleansing" program, he said. The state began such a systematic process three and a half years ago because its law enforcement ranks, too, had been infiltrated by organized crime. The process continues, he said, and it has not been without bloodshed.
Omar.millan@sandiegored.com
