6 Men Held in Abduction of Youth for $300,000 Ransom

Six men suspected of kidnapping a 17-year-old Long Beach youth and holding him for two days were arrested after demanding a $300,000 ransom, authorities said Tuesday.

The youth, whose name was withheld because he is a juvenile, was kept tied up with a hood over his head before he was found uninjured, said Long Beach Police Sgt. George Fox. The youth was kidnapped because he has relatives who are “involved in major narcotics trafficking,” Fox said. But Fox said the youth was “a good student, has no gang affiliations and was a varsity athlete.”

He was pulling out of an alley behind his house Friday morning, on his way to drive his younger brother and sister to school, when two men drove up and trapped him in the alley, Fox said. The suspects left the two younger children in the car, but took the 17-year-old to an apartment in San Bernardino, tied him up and threw a hood over his head.

“The kid was scared stiff,” Fox said.

Long Beach police and the FBI launched a massive investigation, employing about 50 officers. The suspects called the youth’s parents and threatened to kill him if they were not paid $300,000. Later, two Long Beach Police detectives posed as relatives and negotiated with the suspects.

After one conversation, three suspects were arrested at a Compton telephone booth. On Sunday, police found the other suspects and the victim at a house in San Bernardino.

The six suspects who were booked on suspicion of kidnapping for ransom are: Luis Barajas, 25, Esequiel Salazar, 24, and Sergio Adame, 20, all of Compton; Salvador Valdovinos, 30, and Sergio Sanchez, 26, both of San Bernardino, and Vealdo Gomez, 20, of Los Angeles.