Public Safety

Mexican Authorities Investigate Migrant Kidnapping Ring

By Amy Isackson / Border Reporter

Published May 20, 2010 at 2:12 PM PDT

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

Mexican Authorities Investigate Migrant Kidnapping Ring

Mexican authorities say they arrested a group of kidnappers who've nabbed more than 100 migrants trying to cross the border illegally into the United States. Mexican authorities say they're probing the group's ties to the murder of a Border Patrol agent last year.

Mexican authorities say they arrested a group of kidnappers who've nabbed more than 100 migrants trying to cross the border illegally into the United States. Mexican authorities say they're probing the group's ties to the murder of a Border Patrol agent last year.

The eight alleged kidnappers told Baja California investigators that, for the last year and a half, they've targeted migrants in the hills beside the Tecate toll road.

Mexican authorities say that's where they spotted the group Monday. They were armed and had taken a group of migrants hostage.

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Mexican law enforcement swooped in. They say the kidnappers shot at them.

Authorities say they rescued 17 migrants. Four kidnappers remain at large.

Investigators with Baja California's Attorney General's office say the group would call their victims' families to demand a $2,000 ransom.

Mexican authorities say they're testing the group's guns to see if they're tied to the murder of U.S Border Patrol agent Robert Rosas. Rosas was killed while on patrol near Campo last summer. Authorities say two people remain at large in Mexico.

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Public Safety Tijuana

Amy Isackson

Amy Isackson was the border reporter at KPBS from 2004 to 2011. She covered breaking news and feature stories on California-Mexico border issues and immigration, for local and national broadcast. Amy got her start in public radio by pitching a series of stories about rural New Zealand - horse dentistry and sheep sheering - to Radio New Zealand's "Country Life" program. She then worked with Peabody Award-winning radio producers Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, to help create the Sonic Memorial, a series of stories on the World Trade Center before, during and after 9/11. Amy's work has been recognized with awards from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association of California and Nevada, the California Chicano News Media Association, and the San Diego Press Club. She won the Sol Price Prize for Responsible Journalism in 2009 from the Society of Professional Journalists for her story about high school students smuggling people and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. Prior to venturing into the wonderful world of public radio, Amy worked for Yahoo! Inc. for nearly five years as an editorial surfer, associate producer and broadcast communications manager. She majored in Latin American History at Williams College. She grew up in San Diego and made frequent trips south of the border.

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