2 Arrested, 2 More Sought in Kidnapping of Immigrant

An illegal immigrant who was kidnapped when her husband wouldn’t pay the ransom demanded by the men who smuggled her across the Mexican border was held prisoner for three days in a North Hills apartment before she fled with one of her captors on her heels, authorities said Saturday.

The woman bolted as her husband was arriving with the additional $1,500 the smugglers had wanted, and moments later, each called police from separate telephones not far apart.

The husband had been told that “if he didn’t have the money, they would take the wife far away and he would never see her again,” said Los Angeles Police Lt. Bob Tumas.

Police said the dramatic escape occurred early Friday evening just as the woman was being brought out to meet her husband, whom the kidnappers had summoned to pay her ransom.

But instead of the exchange taking place, the wife ran east on Nordhoff Street from the apartment where she had been held, chased by a man who “yelled at her to stop or it would be worse,” Tumas said.

She crossed six lanes of traffic at a busy intersection to get to a gas station where, according to an employee, she calmly said in Spanish that she wanted someone to call police. A Spanish-speaking employee did, the worker said.

Three minutes after that call, Tumas said, police received another call from a pay phone a short distance away--apparently from the woman’s husband, who told police he could direct them to the smugglers.

Los Angeles police reunited the woman with her husband and arrested North Hills resident Sara Zaragoza, 36, and her 14-year-old son on suspicion of kidnapping and false imprisonment at the apartment building where the woman was held.

The suspects were turned over to police in Bell Gardens, where the kidnapping took place, Tumas said. Zaragoza, who is believed to be an illegal immigrant, was turned over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said Bell Gardens Police Sgt. Bruce Dow. Her son was booked and held as a juvenile.

The victim, a Mexican immigrant whose identity has not been released, was later turned over to the INS, Bell Gardens police said. The federal agency is seeking the two smugglers.

Police say the woman was transported from Mexico on Monday by smugglers--or coyotes--and taken to the Bell Gardens home of her husband, who apparently had made arrangements to pay for her transport.

When the smugglers arrived, “they demanded additional money,” said Dow. Although they left the woman with her husband that night, they vowed to return for more cash.

The next day, they kidnapped her from outside the house, took her to a Los Angeles parking lot and “sold their interest in her” to Zaragoza for an undisclosed price, Dow said.

Zaragoza kept the woman in the North Hills apartment under 24-hour watch until the scheduled exchange was to occur on Friday, police said.

Neighbor Alicia Nagy said she heard the woman cry out and then saw her slip out of a van. A handful of police cars soon arrived, accompanied by the victim’s husband and three small children, Nagy said.

Neighbors at the 56-unit complex on Nordhoff Street said a stream of strangers had long been observed coming and going at odd hours at Zaragoza’s second-floor apartment.

“I’d see them at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning, people with suitcases, and young guys with them,” said neighbor Randy Jarvis.