Alex Trelinski
AMERICAN authorities tipped off the Guardia Civil about a kidnapping where the victim was threatened with death if he did not pay his captors €700,000.
A 29-year-old Colombian man was freed from a house on the outskirts of Fortuna in the Murcia region on Tuesday after being held for five days.
Four men have been arrested- two of whom came from Malaga province- with three of them jailed.
The victim was kidnapped on March 22 after travelling from Madrid- lured in by the prospect of making a business deal.
Last Monday, the US Customs and Border Protection Agency and the US Embassy provided information to the Guardia Civil that a Columbian man was being held in Fortuna, with the kidnappers demanding a large ransom.
The Guardia launched a surveillance operation around a property that was under construction and noticed an unusual number of people and cars.
They obtained a search warrant to enter the building and found the kidnapped man safe and sound.
Three people- two Columbians and a Spaniard- that were ‘guarding’ him were detained as well as the property owner.
The Guardia raid also yielded €15,000 in cash, a banknote counting machine, a baseball bat and a hammer.
The freed Columbian suffered a number of injuries during his five-day ordeal and told the Guardia that he received death threats and warnings of reprisals to his family back home, including a six-year-old girl, if he did not pay them €700,000.
It’s not been revealed how the United States factored into his rescue or how they knew where he was being held.
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