http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22614102/
Kidnappings cross border into U.S. cities
Drug trafficking, immigrant smuggling rings fuel violent trend
updated 5:30 p.m. MT, Fri., Jan. 11, 2008
PHOENIX - A woman leaving an eyeglass store is grabbed in the parking lot
by four men who force her, kicking and screaming, into a pickup. The
kidnappers demand a $900,000 ransom.
But police soon realize her family is holding something back and isn't
fully cooperating with them. Later, investigators find out that relatives
have arranged the woman's release on their own. And they discover that
members of the family are heavy into marijuana trafficking.
The case illustrates how a terrifyingly common crime in Latin America has
moved across the border into the United States: Criminals and their
family members are being kidnapped by fellow criminals and held for six-
figure ransoms.
The abductions are occurring in the Phoenix area at the rate of
practically one per day, and police suspect they have led to killings in
which bound and bullet-riddled bodies have been found dumped in the
desert.
