| | |  Americas & Beyond | November 2008 
Kidnappings Spark New Task Force
 KHPO
go to original
| | Maricopa County on pace to see record year. | | |
Phoenix - A spike in immigration-related kidnappings and other Latin American-style violence in Arizona has led the Maricopa County attorney to launch a special task force to attack the problem.
Valley police have submitted 204 cases this year in which a victim or victims were kidnapped and held for ransom County Attorney Andrew Thomas said. If the rate continues, there will be 275 cases by the end of the year, setting a record for Maricopa County, Thomas said.
In a news briefing Sunday, Thomas noted the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association has traced the growing trend to the illegal immigration crisis.
For those cases in which kidnapping for ransom is the highest charge, 74 percent of those sentenced in 2007 for the crime in Maricopa County were found to be in the United States illegally, Thomas said. The sentencing range is from 7 to 15 years in prison.
Thomas noted at least 10 people were killed in a gunfight in Nogales on Oct. 23. Nogales and other Mexican border cities have become battlegrounds for Mexican drug cartels fighting to control smuggling routes into Arizona and other parts of the United States, the county attorney's office said.
To prevent the violence from spreading further into Maricopa County, Thomas said his office has reached out to Valley police by assigning specific prosecutors to handle these cases.
Attorneys in the Special Crimes Bureau, which already handles the office's human-smuggling cases, have been tasked with cracking down on kidnappers, he said. "Three attorneys from the bureau have been designated to work with law enforcement much in the same way the office's Repeat Offender Bureau works with specially trained detectives," Thomas said.
"These kidnappings threaten the safety of neighborhoods all over the Valley," Thomas said. "We have to stop this trend before the violence escalates.
Thomas was joined by PLEA President Mark Spencer. Spencer has called Phoenix the "kidnapping capital of America" because of the spike in violence associated with illegal immigration. |
|
| |
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us