A man and woman face state kidnapping charges following their arrest late Friday at a Phoenix apartment by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents, with assistance from the Phoenix Police Department and Arizona Department of Public Safety. The pair is charged with holding a 13-year-old Honduran boy hostage while attempting to extort additional smuggling fees from his family.
Frances Salas, 27, a U.S. citizen and resident of Phoenix, and Jesus Millan-Rodriguez, 31, a Mexican national, were booked into the Maricopa County Jail, each charged with kidnapping and possession of marijuana for sale.
“This case illustrates yet again the inhumanity of the human smuggling trade,” said Matt Allen, special agent in charge of HSI Arizona. “The sad but simple fact is, to the smuggling organization, this child is nothing more than a business commodity. Parents need to understand that when they contract with smugglers, they place their children into the hands of a ruthless criminal network, possibly endangering their child’s life.”
HSI special agents were first alerted to the case at noon Friday, after a woman contacted HSI in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to report that her son, who had recently been smuggled into the U.S., was being held by smugglers at an unknown location in Phoenix. She said the smugglers were demanding she pay additional smuggling fees and she feared for the boy’s safety. HSI Fort Lauderdale alerted HSI Phoenix special agents, who worked to develop information on the possible location of the drop house. By late Friday night, special agents had sufficient reason to believe the boy was being held in an apartment complex located in the Interstate 17 corridor north of Bethany Home Road.
When special agents and Phoenix Police Department officers responded to the apartment, they discovered the boy in the custody of Salas and Millan-Rodriguez. Agents also discovered a pound of marijuana in a plastic zip-close bag in the apartment. The pair were subsequently arrested by Phoenix police and booked into the Maricopa County Jail.
The boy, who was physically unharmed, was turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Refugee Resettlement, which is the federal agency responsible for the care and custody of unaccompanied alien children encountered by DHS.
The investigation is ongoing.