Three Hispanic residents of Brooklyn (NYC) were indicted on suspicion of kidnapping a New Jersey teenager and torturing him while demanding ransom to free him, according to prosecutors.
The three suspects – Dennis Reyes Mora, Alexander Cruz, and Cindy Aleman Fernandez – were charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping, U.S. Attorney (NJ) Philip R. Sellinger announced Tuesday, for incidents that followed a bad drug deal in Delaware last March 17.
After the failed sale, the three defendants and another person allegedly kidnapped the 18-year-old victim, drove through New Jersey, and held the teenager for ransom in the basement of a Queens (NYC) home. The victim was bound with duct tape during the trip and stabbed repeatedly.
The victim’s eyes were covered, and the suspects bound his wrists and ankles with duct tape once they arrived at the house, prosecutors allege. While in captivity, the teen was burned with cigarettes, beaten, had a knife put through his back, and had a rag soaked in gasoline placed against his eyes, prosecutors said.
You may also like:
- Mexico Mother-in-law attempts to kidnap newborn son, but DNA tests reunite mother and child
- A couple pretended to be “Sonya,” a Tinder date, to kidnap and rob a man in Phoenix
- A nanny from Colombia stole a baby girl and abandoned her on the street days later
According to court documents cited by NBC News, a kidnapper was also said to have threatened the victim with a gun and ammunition. The 27-year-old defendant laughed as they tortured the unidentified victim, prosecutors said.
The young man was eventually released after his family, with the help of the police, paid the ransom. Before being arrested, the kidnappers tried to cover up their alleged crimes by removing and cleaning the seats of the car used in the act, the U.S. attorney’s office detailed.
In a similar case, in October 2020, a drug trafficking group attempting to recover 50 kilograms of cocaine or its million-dollar cash value kidnapped an associate’s grandparents in upstate New York, transported them across the Canadian border through a tribal reservation, and held them, hostage, for two nights.