A federal judge has sentenced three men who kidnapped the wrong person in 2015 outside a home in Berwyn and held him for ransom in an Avondale neighborhood auto body shop.
When the men realized they had mistakenly kidnapped the brother of their target, they initially considered killing their captive, according to prosecutors.
They eventually decided to “beat the sh– out” of him and make him think they were affiliated with a Mexican gang.
The three kidnappers, all Chicago men, pleaded guilty to federal extortion charges this year and were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Andrea R. Wood over the last several days.
Antonio Salgado, 42, was sentenced to 10½ years on Friday. Octavio Alejandre Jr., 41, got 10½ years on Dec. 3. Armando Delgado, 44, was sentenced to 14 years and seven months in late November.
The kidnapping happened the afternoon of May 30, 2015, when the victim was forced at gunpoint into an SUV outside his home in the 1500 block of South Gunderson in the western suburb. The feds said the victim’s brother had been waiting for him in a car outside and saw what happened.
The intended target was involved in drug trafficking, prosecutors say.
Early the next morning, the victim’s uncle said a man who identified himself only as “the Ugly Ones” began calling and demanded, in Spanish, 25 “playeras” — or shirts — which the feds say is code for drugs in kilograms. The feds say they put the victim on the phone to tell his uncle to cooperate.
The kidnappers realized they had the wrong victim later that night. Authorities were already investigating the men for other crimes. The feds recorded their phone conversations as they tried to decide what to do with their victim.
“Beat the sh– out of the guy tonight and cut him loose instead of coming back,” Salgado allegedly told Delgado. “Make this look as if this is a job from Mexico, and they’ll know not to bull-–.”
The victim turned up at a Chicago bus station June 1. He told police he had been kidnapped, held and released during the night.
Prosecutors dropped charges in 2016 against two other men initially charged in the kidnapping conspiracy. The case dragged on for years in federal court in Chicago until the three men accepted plea agreements with prosecutors.
In 2018, the judge issued an arrest warrant for Salgado after he failed to appear in court. He was a fugitive for nearly eight months until he was found and arrested, prosecutors said. Salgado was charged in a separate criminal case with contempt of court.
Contributing: Jon Seidel