Press Release from US Attorney’s Office – Arizona:

Hostage Taker Sentenced to over 15 Years in federal prison

TUCSON, Ariz. – Yuris Bonilla-Guizar, of Mexico, was sentenced today to 15 years and eight months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Frank R. Zapata. Bonilla-Guizar and his co-defendant were found guilty by a federal jury in Tucson in October 2010 of Conspiracy to Commit Hostage Taking and Harboring Illegal Aliens. The pair detained a 32-year-old male victim in a room in a trailer for four days demanding money from his family for his release.

The evidence at trial showed that on September 22, 2009, the victim and four other illegal aliens were dropped off at the defendants’ trailer by an unknown co-conspirator.

The men had been guided through the mountains in Nogales, Mexico over the U.S./Mexico border to a car that drove them to the trailer.

The defendants forced the male victim to call his family every few hours and request $2,300 for his release.

The defendants put a gun fitted with a laser sight to the victim and threatened to kill him.

After two days in the trailer, the defendants took the victim’s clothes and shoes to further prohibit him from escaping from the trailer. 

The victim was rescued after a family member called Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and provided HSI with the phone number from which she received the ransom call.

Federal agents then used the number to track the victim to the trailer house and rescue him.

By the time the victim was rescued, he was the only remaining hostage; the other men had been released and their whereabouts are unknown.

The co-defendant, Carlos Calixtro-Bustamante, is set for sentencing at 9:00 a.m. on September 7, 2011, before Judge Zapata.

The investigation leading to the guilty verdict was conducted by agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations. The prosecution was handled by Kristen Brook, Assistant U.S. Attorney, and John Evans, Assistant U.S. Attorney, District of Arizona, Tucson.

CASE NUMBER:        CR-09-02343-TUC-FRZ

COMMENT: This is a very revealing story about what goes on with illegal entry…the illegal entrants are held hostage and ransom paid for their release.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 24th, 2011 at 7:58 am and is filed under border issues, crime, politics. Tags for this post: crime, us attirneys office arizona. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.