| For Immediate Release Case# 05HF2101
March 6, 2009 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Public Affairs Counsel Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami |
HUMAN TRAFFICKING SMUGGLERS SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON FOR KIDNAPPING MOTHER AND
5-YEAR-OLD SON FOR RANSOM
SANTA ANA – Two human traffickers convicted of kidnapping a Brazilian woman and her child and holding them for ransom were sentenced today to life in state prison. Reynaldo Junior Eid, 49, New York, NY, and Alaor Docarmo Oliveira Jr., 55, Danbury, CT, were found guilty by a jury on March 19, 2008, of two felony counts of kidnapping for ransom.
In 2005, Brazilian national Jefferson R., who was living illegally in the United States, arranged and paid a smuggler $14,000 to bring his 24-year-old wife, Ana R., and 5-year-old son, Iago R., to Florida from Sao Paolo, Brazil. Ana R. and Iago R. flew to Mexicali, Mexico, to begin the process of entering the United States. The victims were passed from one smuggler to another as they made their way through Mexico and eventually across the border into San Diego from Tijuana.
On Nov. 21, 2005, the victims were dropped off at a gas station in Costa Mesa, where they were picked up by smugglers Eid and Oliveira. The defendants drove Ana R. and Iago R. to the Travelodge on Newport Boulevard in Costa Mesa and checked into a motel room. On Nov. 23, 2005, the defendants contacted Jefferson R. in Florida and told him they wanted more money.
On Nov. 24, 2005, Eid and Oliveira told Ana R. that if they did not receive the additional $14,000 by that evening, they would take her and Iago R. to New York to work off their debt instead of re-uniting her with her husband. The victim’s husband called a friend in Orange County and asked that she go to the hotel to try and help the victims escape. The friend went to the Travelodge, but the defendants slammed the door in her face and began threatening the victims. The friend called the police from outside the hotel. Police officers arrived as the defendants were attempting to flee with the victims.
“This sentence sends a resounding message about the consequences awaiting those in the human smuggling trade who put people’s lives in harm’s way solely to turn a profit,” said Robert Schoch, special agent in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Investigations in Los Angeles. “ICE will continue to work closely with its law enforcement partners here in Southern California to ensure that human smugglers and their associates are made to pay for the fear and suffering they cause.”
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office worked with ICE to investigate this case. Deputy District Attorney Andre Manssourian of the Special Prosecutions Unit prosecuted this case.
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