Deputies Rescue Kidnaped Man, Arrest Three Suspects

An East Los Angeles businessman was kidnaped Tuesday and held for ransom in a South Gate garage, only to be rescued hours later by sheriff’s deputies who arranged a phony ransom exchange with his abductors, authorities said.

Abel Valenzuela, 52, was uninjured after the daylong ordeal during which he was handcuffed, blindfolded and held at gunpoint in the garage of a home in the 10500 block of Jackson Avenue, Deputy Bill Linnemeyer said.

Three men, Alfredo Garcia, 34, and brothers Crispin Mejia, 25, and Narciso Mejia, 23, were arrested and booked on charges of kidnaping for ransom, Linnemeyer said. They were each being held in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Valenzuela, owner of Abel Valenzuela Furniture on Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles, had been driving to work at 9:15 a.m. Tuesday when he was abducted about a block from his South San Gabriel home.

Two men in a pickup truck cut Valenzuela off at an intersection, where one jumped out, pointed a gun at Valenzuela’s head, and put the businessman in the back of the truck, deputies said.

“Valenzuela’s car was found in the middle of an intersection with the keys still in the ignition,” Linnemeyer said.

Less than an hour later, Valenzuela’s wife, Graciela, received a phone call in which the abductors “said they had kidnaped her husband and wanted $150,000 for his safe return,” the deputy said.

Detectives then arranged a phony money drop in the parking lot of a store in South Gate near the intersection of the 710 Freeway and Firestone Boulevard, Sheriff’s Sgt. T.J. Hageboeck said.

About 4:30 p.m., an undercover deputy, pretending to be Valenzuela’s daughter, drove to the designated drop-off point, where she met two of the alleged abductors.

Garcia and the older Mejia were arrested, and deputies traced the license plate of their car to the Jackson Avenue home where they found the third suspect and Valenzuela, Hageboeck said.

Along with the truck allegedly used in the kidnaping, deputies also found a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun at the home, Linnemeyer said.

Deputies said the kidnaping apparently followed a failed business deal between Valenzuela and Garcia in which the two men were going to start a chain of stores.