The Civil Guard has released a 27-year-old Algerian resident of La Vila Joiosa who was kidnapped and held for 11 days, moving between homes in Santa Pola and Yecla. During his captivity, he given little food and he was brutally attacked, including with electric shock treatment.
The Guardia has now arrested five people in Yecla, Cartagena and La Vila Joiosa for the kidnapping and for extortion. The alleged gang members recorded the beatings to coerce his relatives into paying a ransom of 350,000 euros for his release.
According to the Guardia, a relative of the kidnapped man filed a complaint on May 29 reporting his disappearance from La Vila Joiosa.
The family explained that the kidnapping took place two days earlier with the kidnappers demanding a ransom of 350,000 euros for his release.
The investigators were able to corroborate that late afternoon of May 27, the victim left his place of work to go to the home of a friend in La Vila Joiosa but did not arrive. It has subsequently come to light that he was approached by three hooded people who threatened him with a gun and bundled him in a car, where he was violently attacked, even hitting him with a hammer.
The kidnappers then fled at high speed taking him to a flat located in the urban area of Santa Pola, where he remained locked up for two days, under permanent surveillance and tied by leather straps.
However, the kidnappers suspected possible police surveillance and decided to move to a rural house located in a remote area in the municipality of Yecla (Murcia), where he was brutally assaulted on several occasions, even using a stun gun while being recorded, as they continued to coerce the family into paying the ransom for his release. The kidnappers threatened to kill him if the ransom payment was not made.
The Civil Guard located the address where the victim could be held and on June 7 they raided the rural house, where the kidnapped man was locate. At the time he was with two people who were guarding him, both of whom were arrested.
Two other people directly linked to the kidnapping were then arrested in Cartagena (Murcia) and a fifth person responsible was arrested last Tuesday in La Vila Joiosa.
The five detainees, between the ages of 19 and 28 and all of Spanish nationality, have a history of robbery with violence, theft and misappropriation. The five were remanded in prison for a crime of kidnapping for extortion after being made available to the duty courts of Yecla, Cartagena and La Vila Joiosa.
The victim, despite the assaults and the lack of food, was released conscious and walking on his own two feet, although suffering from a number of injuries.
The Civil Guard stresses the importance of reporting events like this as soon as possible, in person at the nearest Civil Guard barracks, or by calling 062. “If a family member has been kidnapped, stay calm, try to keep the phones where you are likely to be contacted free and be prepared to receive a call from the kidnappers; do not contradict them, but do not agree to the requests. Try to convey to them the impossibility of making the required payment immediately and report all the facts to the Guardia agents as soon as possible”, they explain.
