| For Immediate Release Case # 05HF2101 March 19, 2008 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Public Affairs Counsel Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami |
SMUGGLERS CONVICTED OF KIDNAPPING
MOTHER AND 5-YEAR-OLD SON FOR
RANSOM IN HUMAN TRAFFICKING CASE
SANTA ANA – Two smugglers were convicted today of kidnapping a Brazilian woman and her child in a human trafficking case and holding them for ransom. Reynaldo Junior Eid, 48, New York, NY, and Alaor Docarmo Oliveira Jr., 54, Danbury, CT, were found guilty of two felony counts of kidnapping for ransom and face a maximum sentence of life in prison. They are scheduled to be sentenced May 30, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. in Department C-36, Central Justice Center, Santa Ana.
In 2005, a Brazilian national living in the United States illegally arranged with a smuggler to bring his 24-year-old wife Ana R. and his 5-year-old son Iago R. from Sao Paolo, Brazil, to Florida for $14,000. Jefferson R. paid the smuggler and 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 November 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. That afternoon, the defendants contacted Jefferson R. in Florida and told him they wanted more money.
On Thursday, November 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 attempted to flee with the victims.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office worked with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to investigate this case. Deputy District Attorney Andre Manssourian of the Special Prosecutions Unit is prosecuting this case.
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