United States Attorney
Northern District of Texas

1100 Commerce St., 3rd Fl.
Dallas, Texas 75242-1699

Telephone (214) 659-8600
Fax (214) 767-0978

KIDNAPPER SENTENCED TO 9 YEARS IMPRISONMENT

United States Attorney Richard B. Roper announced that Guillermo Rodriguez-Flores, was sentenced today by the Honorable Ed Kinkeade, United States District Judge, to nine years imprisonment. In September 2005, Rodriguez-Flores pled guilty to kidnapping two minor children. Rodriguez-Flores was a fugitive, but was arrested in Arizona in November 2004 and has been in federal custody since that time.

Guillermo Rodriguez Flores and co-defendant Ismael Jesus Valora-Flores were charged in a superseding indictment with conspiracy to commit kidnapping, kidnapping and unlawfully transporting illegal aliens. That indictment alleged that Guillermo-Flores and Valora-Flores conspired with each other, and other alien smugglers, to kidnap, and hold for ransom two children, a girl, age 16, and a boy, age 12. Defendant Valora-Flores pled guilty in April 2003 to kidnapping two minor children and is scheduled to be sentenced on March 30, 2006.

According to court documents, in October 2002, the mother of the children made arrangements in Mexico with a Mexican national known as “Jorge” to smuggle her and three of her children, the 16 year old, the 12 year old, and an infant child, into the United States for a $3400 fee. Jorge instructed the mother to travel by bus to Tejupilco, at an expense of 4500 Mexican pesos that was not included in the agreed upon fee. From that location, the mother and children traveled to a small town near the Arizona border where Jorge had reserved a room. A few days later the family traveled by cab to another location as instructed by Jorge. This time Jorge told them to each have 20 pesos in case they were stopped in the desert and robbed. From this location another male met them and then guided a total of nine aliens through the desert for two hours, during which time they were each robbed of the 20 pesos.

They were harbored for a week at an unknown location in Phoenix in a small home with iron bars on the windows with all of the aliens placed in one of the rooms. On about October 27, 2002, the two older children were held for ransom money in Phoenix while alien smugglers, including Rodriguez-Flores, transported the children’s mother to Austin so that she could obtain ransom money for the release of her children. Approximately one week later, Valora-Flores transported the children from Phoenix to Dallas. Co-defendant Rodriguez-Flores advised the mother that the children had been transported to Dallas, but that he would deliver them the next day to a certain Fiesta grocery store in Austin, Texas. The mother sent the kidnappers additional money to complete their fee, but Rodriguez-Flores demanded further ransom from her for the children’s release when they arrived in Austin. When she didn’t have it, he and Valora-Flores transported the children back to Dallas where Rodriguez-Flores continued to hold the children for ransom at an apartment in Dallas. The U.S. Marshals Service intervened and later that day, November 4, 2002, the children were released near a retail store in Dallas and Valora-Flores was apprehended.

“This is a classic case of how human smugglers may separate family members and then use the children as pawns to extort more money from the parents,” said John Chakwin, special agent-in-charge of the ICE Dallas Office of Investigations. “Human smugglers such as Rodriguez-Flores have repeatedly shown that they have no regard for human life. We will continue to work with law enforcement agencies and the U.S. Attorney’s office to find and prosecute these smugglers to the fullest extent of the law. Chakwin heads the ICE office which covers north Texas and the State of Oklahoma.

U.S. Attorney Roper praised the cooperative investigative efforts of the Department of Homeland Security - Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the United States Marshals Service. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Tammy Reno.

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