In cartel-dominated Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, a gateway to the United States, it’s a lucrative racket: Snatch a migrant from Cuba, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Venezuela or elsewhere; commandeer their cellphones; then call U.S. relatives demanding thousands of dollars.
Extortion-minded mobs view vulnerable migrants as walking ATMs. Mob halcones — hawks, or lookouts — watch bus stations and other strategic spots, eyeing potential quarry.
Ortega said, she and her son were on a bus when a group of about 10 men flagged the vehicle on the outskirts of Nuevo Laredo.
Ortega and her son were taken to a house where a dozen other migrants were being held, she said, and the kidnappers grabbed her phone. They found the number of her younger brother, who had arrived in Atlanta a few months earlier. The captors snapped photos of Ortega and her son and dispatched the images to her brother, demanding $8,000 for their release, she said.
On Aug. 18, when the money had been paid, Ortega said, she and her son were driven to a spot along the Rio Grande, where the cartel strictly controls illicit crossings, and taken across in an inflated tire tube.
Ortega and her son were detained in U.S. custody in Texas for two nights, she said, before being released with a court date of Dec. 10 in San Antonio.
“We told them (U.S. immigration authorities) we had been kidnapped, but they didn’t believe us,” Ortega said.
On Aug. 20, U.S. Border Patrol officers returned Ortega, her son and 18 other distraught migrants on foot to Nuevo Laredo across the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge, in a sullen procession repeated here daily beneath the blazing sun. Many clutched transparent plastic bags emblazoned with the seal of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and containing notices to appear in immigration court.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Gee.....Don't come and you wont be robbed.....Easy to remember!
Extortion-minded mobs view vulnerable migrants as walking ATMs. Mob halcones — hawks, or lookouts — watch bus stations and other strategic spots, eyeing potential quarry.
Ortega said, she and her son were on a bus when a group of about 10 men flagged the vehicle on the outskirts of Nuevo Laredo.
Ortega and her son were taken to a house where a dozen other migrants were being held, she said, and the kidnappers grabbed her phone. They found the number of her younger brother, who had arrived in Atlanta a few months earlier. The captors snapped photos of Ortega and her son and dispatched the images to her brother, demanding $8,000 for their release, she said.
On Aug. 18, when the money had been paid, Ortega said, she and her son were driven to a spot along the Rio Grande, where the cartel strictly controls illicit crossings, and taken across in an inflated tire tube.
Ortega and her son were detained in U.S. custody in Texas for two nights, she said, before being released with a court date of Dec. 10 in San Antonio.
“We told them (U.S. immigration authorities) we had been kidnapped, but they didn’t believe us,” Ortega said.
On Aug. 20, U.S. Border Patrol officers returned Ortega, her son and 18 other distraught migrants on foot to Nuevo Laredo across the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge, in a sullen procession repeated here daily beneath the blazing sun. Many clutched transparent plastic bags emblazoned with the seal of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and containing notices to appear in immigration court.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Gee.....Don't come and you wont be robbed.....Easy to remember!
