TIJUANA Authorities have dismantled a criminal group dubbed "Los Chilangos" that allegedly kidnapped would-be immigrants walking through the mountains of Tecate and then demanded that family members in the United States pay a $4,000 ransom for each.
The action is the latest crackdown on criminals who prey on one of the most vulnerable populations in the border region, migrants trying to reach the United States.
Abel Galván, the state prosecutor against organized crime, announced that using intelligence received from the anti-kidnapping unit, authorities were able to identify three people responsible for the migrants' abduction on Sept. 26.
On that date, a person nicknamed "El Mono" allegedly was guiding four migrants attempting to cross illegally into the United States through a mountainous area near Tecate. However, the man took them to another site where, working with others, he kidnapped the migrants, Galván said.
Their families got a call from the captors demanding $4,000 to release each immigrant. Galván said the money was picked up at a Western Union branch in Tlalnepantla, in the state of Mexico.
Authorities were able to identify the alleged criminals, all part of a group called "Los Chilangos."
The detained were identified as Edgar Pérez, "El Sacra", 28, from Puebla; Israel López, 31, from Chiapas; and Emilio Soto, "El Tito, " 36, from Nayarit.
State authorities believe that the group has a total of nine members. They have requested five arrest warrants for aggravated kidnapping and violent robbery.
On Sept. 28, twelve Mexican migrants who were attempting to cross illegally into the United States were kidnapped than abandoned in the mountainous area of La Rumorosa, near Tecate.
The migrants were rescued by military personnel, municipal police and Grupo Beta agents, who are deployed along the border to assist would-be immigrants.
The kidnappers reportedly left the victims with their hands and feet bound. They were found about six hours after they had been left there.
The 12 were from the states of Sinaloa, Guerrero and Querétaro and it's unknown how long they had been in the Tecate area.
On Oct. 25, authorities dismantled a band dedicated to kidnapping immigrants. According to the state Attorney General's Office, the band was led by Enrique Moraga Valdez, who along with ten accomplices, among them a former municipal police officer, kidnapped at least 18 immigrants and collected ransoms from family members living in the United States.
A researcher at the University of Guadalajara, Jorge Durand, said that the criminal bands dedicated to abducting immigrants are part of the diversification of organized crime, which also extorts the general population.
"The immigrants became easy prey. The criminals think that their families have money and the government only recently began to act, despite the massacres that have been discovered in Tamaulipas," he said in an interview at the think tank Colegio de la Frontera Norte.
He was referring to the massacre of 72 migrants on their way to the United States from Central and South America in August of 2010 in northeast Mexico. Drug traffickers kidnapped them and when ransom was not paid, executed them.
Omar.millan@sandiegored.com
