A Tucson couple was kidnapped last Wednesday, April 24, in Nogales, Sonora and held for a $15,000 ransom, according the the Sonora Attorney General’s Office.
They were rescued around 7:30 p.m. on Thursday after the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City contacted Sonoran officials around 7 p.m. with a report from the victim’s family members in Tucson, said Francisco Dueñas, a delegate for the attorney general’s office in northern Sonora.
"It was a successful operation. They were rescued safe and sound," he said.
The two Tucsonans, ages 38 and 40, were unharmed and no ransom was paid, he said.
The victims were provided assistance from the U.S. Consulate, as well as medical, legal and psychological assistance as victims of a crime in Mexico, the attorney general’s office said. They were also questioned by Mexican officers before being escorted back into the United States Saturday and handed over to U.S. authorities.
Two captors were detained at the scene and charged with kidnapping, Dueñas says. One, a 17-year-old, has already been sentenced and is being held at a juvenile detention facility, he said. The other captor, 22, is set to stand trial this week, he added. The investigation is still ongoing.
Dueñas called the kidnapping an isolated incident and said it is not part of a trend or a surge of violence in the border city.
"Like anywhere in the world, there is some insecurity, but for our neighbors who come to visit ... they can do that without fear," he said. "This isn't a situation that normally goes on here."
