Santa Ana : Hostage Rescued After 9 Days; Suspects Seized

A Santa Ana man, held for nine days by kidnapers while his wife tried to negotiate a $20,000 ransom, was rescued by police Friday.

Natalio Cabrera, 36, was bound hand and foot when officers entered a Santa Ana house where he had been held since Sept. 17, when three armed men seized, bound and blindfolded him in front of his home at 803 E. St. Andrew Place, police Lt. Robert Chavez said.

Four men and one woman, all of Santa Ana, were arrested during the rescue at 1617 W. McFadden St., where police also found several guns. The five suspects were charged with kidnaping for ransom and taken to the Orange County Jail, where bail was set at $250,000 each.

They were identified by police as Benigno L. Camacho, 32; Jorge L. Espinoza, 33; Jose Bruno Gutierrez, 30; Arturo de la Lopez, and Maria E. Fregoso, 29.

A police spokesman said Cabrera’s wife was contacted by the kidnapers four days after her husband was abducted and told that the ransom would be $20,000, a sum she told them she did not have. For the next few days she negotiated with the kidnapers but she did not notify police until Friday, the day she had agreed to deliver the money to Centennial Regional Park. Before the delivery could be made, police determined where Cabrera was being held and rescued him, Chavez said.