Los Angeles, California.- Four men have been arrested and charged with kidnapping migrants who had been smuggled into the United States and demanding that relatives pay a ransom for their release, officials said Monday.
The men have pleaded not guilty after being arraigned, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles said. A fifth man faces charges in the case but remains at large, prosecutors said in a statement.
The defendants took the four migrants from an Arizona gas station last year and held them captive at a home in California, prosecutors said.
Three of the hostages were later taken to a motel, where one of them escaped through a second-floor bathroom window and ran to a nearby convenience store, the statement said. One of the suspects chased him and beat him in an attempt to kidnap him again.
Migrants attempting to cross into the United States are frequently kidnapped by gangs and drug cartels in Mexico, and are known to be vulnerable to kidnapping in the United States as well.
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