PHOENIX (AP) - Federal officials say a Mexican man has been sentenced to 2 ½ years in prison after pleading guilty in a case involving the kidnapping of a 17-year-old boy from El Salvador.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement says 35-year-old Pedro Chavez-Bautista pleaded guilty to one count of human smuggling on June 28 and was sentenced on Monday.
ICE says Chavez-Bautista is a smuggler who held the boy for ransom at a Phoenix business last December. The boy’s family had already paid $4,500 for the boy to be smuggled but Chavez-Bautista demanded another $4,000 to release him, ICE says.
Chavez-Bautista told the teen’s mom that she was “playing with her son’s life” if she didn’t pay the ransom.
Authorities rescued the teen from a tire shop in Phoenix four days after Chavez-Bautista threatened the boy’s mom.
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