EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — A 9-year-old boy was recently held for ransom after he was separated from his mother at a stash house in Juarez, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (HSI) in El Paso.
HSI says the 9-year-old boy from Honduras was kidnapped and held for ransom by members of a transnational criminal organization after he was separated from his mother at a stash house in Juarez, waiting to be smuggled into the U.S. through El Paso.
The boy’s kidnappers began demanding money from the boy’s relatives in Kansas City, Kansas. At the same time, the boy’s mother entered the country illegally and Border Patrol agents detained her on July 27 in El Paso.
On Aug. 1, agents with the Chihuahua anti-kidnapping unit interviewed one of the boy’s relatives who sent money through a wire transfer to Juarez. On Aug. 2, the kidnappers abandoned the boy at a Juarez municipal police station.
HSI says no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
HSI says Mexican authorities plan to make arrangements to transport the child to his country of origin.
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