Three New York residents were charged Tuesday with kidnapping and torturing a man from New Jersey after a failed drug deal, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
Dennis Reyes Mora, 37, Alexander Cruz, 26, and Cindy Aleman Fernandez, 27, all Brooklyn residents, are accused of holding the 18-year-old Hackensack man captive in the basement of a New York home before collecting a ransom from his family, prosecutors said.
A dispute arose during the attempted drug deal in the parking lot of a hotel in Newark, Delaware on March 17, officials said. The trio put the man in a vehicle while bound in duct tape and drove him to Queens, New York, while stabbing him in the leg multiple times, according to a criminal complaint.
The kidnappers then moved him to the basement of a home where they tied him to a chair, assaulted him, burned cigarettes on his skin, ran a knife across his neck and held a gasoline soaked rag against his eyes, the complaint said. They also threatened him by showing him a gun and rounds of ammunition, authorities said.
The victim’s family received multiple phone calls from the man and the alleged kidnappers, demanding as much as $60,000 in ransom money, court documents said.
The man’s mother traveled to Queens on March 21 and dropped off $20,000 in cash at a specified location before they released him, officials said.
Investigators searched the Queens home as well as multiple other residences associated with the alleged kidnappers and located blood, shell casings and multiple items that were determined to have been used during the incident, authorities said.
The trio has been charged with one count each of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
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Nicolas Fernandes may be reached at nfernandes@njadvancemedia.com.
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