FBI Wiretap Disrupts Kidnap, Torture Plot by Mexican Cartel

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) stopped a plot by three Mexican cartel members to kidnap San Diego, California-based drug dealers for unpaid debts and then torture them. The cartel members will now spend time in U.S. federal prison, according to Susan Shroder of the San Diego Union Tribune. 

The three will serve sentences ranging from ten to seven-and-a-half years for conspiracy to commit kidnapping.

At least one of the three Mexican cartel members entered the U.S. illegally in their plan to kidnap the drug dealers, bring them back to Mexico, torture them, and then dissolve the victims’ corpses in acid, according to Shroder. 

The three Mexican cartel members are Carlos Alberto Andrade De La Cruz, Luis Miguel Salas Rodriguez, and Antonio Zermeno Garcia. Though Rodriguez and Garcia are reportedly from San Diego, De La Cruz is from Tijuana, Mexico. A search of court records reveals that De La Cruz has illegally entered the U.S. previously and was convicted of using another person’s passport. It is unclear if his illegal re-entry was done alone or with the others.

Shroder reports that the FBI used a wiretap to disrupt the plan of the cartel members. After illegally entering the U.S., the three ended up together at the home of one of the intended victims. FBI SWAT stopped the kidnapping effort and arrested the three cartel men. Shroder’s report reveals that the FBI learned of the plot and then obtained approval for a wiretap, but no information was provided regarding how the FBI initially uncovered the plan. 

Court documents for this case were not publicly available at the time of this article’s publication.

The convictions and sentencing come on the heels of an incident several days ago in Texas where a man’s body was found near the U.S./Mexico border. In that case, the victim showed signs of having been tortured. This story was first reported by Nadia Galindo of ValleyCentral.com and then covered by Breitbart News.

Another recent case that was first reported by Breitbart News involved a Chicago kidnapping of a woman and her children in retribution for a matter involving cocaine from a Mexican drug cartel. This case was unique in that the official court documents specifically stated the cocaine belonged to a Mexican cartel.