New York Police Department: Merchant held for ransom, tortured for month
Source: Associated Press
New York Police Department: Merchant held for ransom, tortured for month
By Collen Long, Associated Press
Posted May 23, 2013 at 9:09 p.m.
NEW YORK (AP) — A businessman was snatched from a New York City street in broad daylight, then held captive for more than a month in a warehouse where he was bound and burned with acid as he was held for a $3 million ransom his family back in Ecuador did not have, authorities said.
Pedro Portugal, 52, was found this week by detectives who had been monitoring phone calls, noticed pizza deliveries to a deserted area in Queens and zeroed in on the warehouse, police said. Three men were arrested and charged with kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment; one is still believed to be at large in the U.S., and three fled to Ecuador, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Thursday.
Portugal, a father of six who owned a small accounting and tax firm in Queens, was burned with acid and spent the better part of a month with his head cloaked, authorities said. He remained hospitalized Thursday, and authorities said he did not want to speak to the news media.
Police said he was approached by three captors on April 18. One flashed what looked like a police badge and called out the victim's name, police said. He was forced into an SUV where he was held at knifepoint and bound, then taken to the warehouse. His mother in Quito, Ecuador, got a call from a man calling himself Tito and demanding a $3 million ransom, police said.
Read more: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/may/23/new-york-police-department-merchant-held-ransom-to/
= new reply since forum marked as read
