On August 27 in the city of Sullivan, Texas, the kidnapping of an unidentified US man took place. Kidnappers from Mexico illegally crossed the border and took the man from his neighborhood threatening him with a gun. They forced him onto a ferryboat that took the man away to Mexico. After that, he was brought to the small town of Reynosa. The kidnappers kept him prisoner demanding ransom for him to be returned safely (Ortiz, 2015).
According to the 18 U. S. Code kidnapping is defined as a crime that involves keeping an individual (or a group of them) in captivity and further taking the victim past the US boundary. This can be done either by force or by threatening to apply force. In addition to kidnapping, the offenders can torture or sexually abuse the victim and intimidate his/her relatives so as to receive the ransom. If that is the case, the crime is considered to be aggravated kidnapping. If the offended has the citizenship of the United States and he or she is taken away by any means of transport under the responsibility of the United States, the case will be tried by the Federal Court.
The criminal is to be committed to custody. If the abductee dies before he or she is rescued, the kidnapper will be either executed or constrained for life (18 U.S. Code § 1201 – Kidnapping, 2015, para. 1-12). In the given case, the criminals illegally crossed the borders of the US. Furthermore, at the moment of the crime, the offended person lived in the United States. The victim was shipped over the border on a vessel under the responsibility of the United States. Therefore, the case may be prosecuted in the Federal Court.
In Texas Penal Code § 20, kidnapping is defined as holding a person in captivity on purpose (Texas Kidnapping/Abduction Laws, 2014, para. 3). The prosecution can remit the sentence if the offender neither threatens nor injures the offended. The sentence can also be commuted if the kidnapper is the abductee’s family member. In this case, the offender is constrained for no more than a decade and forced to refurbish the damage. On the other hand, the criminal (or a group of criminals) can hold the victim prisoner in order to intimidate his/her relatives. They can physically harm, or rape, or use weapons to threaten or damage the victim. Such actions are considered aggravated kidnapping.
It is punished by either life in prison or less (Texas Kidnapping/Abduction Laws, 2014, para. 4-7). Thus, the given case can be classified as a state crime that includes the fact of abduction, the use of guns to menace the abductee, and the intimidation of the abductee’s family. Due to the fact that the crime was committed on the Texas border, the state court could hold the trial for this case. Another possible solution would be to find and arrest the criminals with further extradition to the Mexican Government.
The actual outcome of this case was, however, that the criminals managed to hide in Reynosa for a period of time. Later they were arrested in the course of an operation launched by the Mexican Federal Police. In the end, the US citizen was safely returned to the city of Sullivan. The offenders, one of whom was ascertained as J. G. Hernandez, were transported to the Durango prison. It is stated that the cartel is still functioning with some representatives of it operating in Mexico (Ortiz, 2015).
References
18 U.S. Code § 1201 – Kidnapping. (2015). Web.
Ortiz, I. (2015). Mexican Cartel Sicarios Crossed Into Texas And Kidnapped U.S. Citizen. Breitbart News Network. Web.
Texas Kidnapping/Abduction Laws. (2014). Web.