Criminals targeted in U.S. "kidnap capital"

By Tim Gaynor

PHOENIX (Reuters) - The criminal underworld in the sun-baked Arizona capital of Phoenix has long enjoyed the hot money profits from illicit smuggling of drugs and people over the border from Mexico.

But now its members are living in fear as they are stalked by kidnappers after their proceeds, authorities say.

Police in the desert city say specialized kidnap rings are snatching suspected criminals and their families from their homes, running them off the roads and even grabbing them at shopping malls in a spiraling spate of abductions.

"Phoenix is ground zero for illegal narcotics smuggling and illegal human smuggling in the United States," said Phil Roberts, a Phoenix Police Department detective.

"There's a lot of illegal cash out there in the valley, and a lot of people want to get their hands on it."

Last year alone, Phoenix police reported 357 extortion-related abductions -- up by nearly half from 2005 -- targeting individuals with ties to Mexican smuggling rings.

In addition, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement police have also recorded cases of kidnappers snatching illegal immigrant day laborers off the street for ransom.

Agents have also recorded a growing number of "virtual kidnappings," in which abductors cold-call an immigrant's family falsely claiming that they are holding them hostage. The tactic is used frequently Mexico, where abduction is a lucrative and sophisticated industry.

BEATINGS AND TORTURE

Each year, hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants are smuggled through Arizona from Mexico, most heading on to join relatives living and working in the shadows in towns and cities across the United States.

The desert state also straddles a furiously trafficked corridor for drugs, especially marijuana, more than 400 tons of which were seized last year by the U.S. Border Patrol alone. Profits from the two crimes amount to billions of dollars.

Police say the kidnappers are most often Mexican criminals, sometimes helped by local street gangs in Phoenix. They single out cash-flush targets from among the drug traffickers and "coyotes" -- as human smugglers are known -- in the criminal community.

Cell members may trail identified targets for a couple of days, looking for the moment to pounce. Others may be asking around, looking for likely victims, often big spenders "who throw their money around" in bars and clubs, Roberts said.

Aside from the smugglers themselves, victims have included their wives, girlfriends and even children. They are often held in darkened rooms where they are routinely beaten, tortured or sexually assaulted to extort a ransom that can range from $50,000 to $1 million.

Police recordings of ransom calls reveal the kidnappers' brutality. In one 2006 call, the abductors had bound a victim with tape, placed him in a bathtub and called his ex-wife to demand money as they threatened him with a hacksaw.