Mexico kidnapping linked to feud, heart surgery

Warrant: One suspect apparently needed ransom money for transplant

Jason Auslander | The New Mexican

7/2/2008 - 7/3/08

Feuding families and heart transplant surgery appear to be behind the Mexico kidnapping and ransom of a Santa Fe businessman last month, according to court documents.

A family member of the kidnapping victim in Santa Fe told FBI agents his family "has had issues and problems with the Mendoza family which is headed by Fernando Mendoza," according to a search and arrest warrant filed in U.S. District Court.

The two families — both of whom sell used cars in Santa Fe — are apparently related, though the reasons behind the feud are not clear beyond the fact that the kidnapping victim fired Mendoza's brother a year and a half ago, the warrant states. However, after the ransom was paid and the kidnapping victim was released, a relative of Mendoza's told a member of the victim's family that Fernando Mendoza "now has $200,000 to use for heart transplant surgery."

"He will reportedly undergo the surgery in the near future in Colorado," the affidavit says, adding Mendoza is "disabled and needs to use an oxygen bag." The relative said she heard Mendoza got the money because his auto sales business was doing well.

That operation now seems unlikely to occur anytime soon, however.

FBI agents arrested Mendoza, 34, and Ever Chavez, 19, in Santa Fe on Tuesday. The two were arraigned Wednesday morning in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, where each was charged with kidnapping and taking ransom, according to online federal court records. Each pleaded not guilty.

In the affidavit, the two men are accused of orchestrating the victim's kidnapping at his family's ranch in Chihuahua, Mexico, on May 29 as well as the subsequent payment of more than $161,000 in ransom, which was dropped off at a "remote location" in Santa Fe.

Attempts Wednesday to speak with the victim's brother, who is listed in the Santa Fe Yellow Pages under used car dealers, were not successful. The victim is a Mexican national with legal resident status, as is Mendoza, the affidavit states. Chavez — who was arrested for driving while intoxicated in 2007, though the affidavit doesn't say where — is an illegal immigrant, the affidavit states.

The saga began when the kidnapping victim's son in Santa Fe received a call telling him his father had been kidnapped and would be freed only after a $450,000 ransom was paid, according to the affidavit. The son called his mother, who told him she'd spoken to his father earlier that morning before he'd gone to feed cows on the ranch about nine miles from the ranch home, the affidavit says.

A family member later found the victim's pickup abandoned along the road near the ranch amid "signs of a 'road block' having been placed where the pick-up was located," according to the affidavit.

FBI agents immediately began watching Mendoza's car lot in Santa Fe — Santa Fe Auto Sales, 2045 Cerrillos Road — and observed Mendoza and Chavez "pacing up and down and around the property, while talking on their cell phones," the affidavit states. Negotiations for the amount of the ransom culminated June 3, when Chavez called the kidnapping victim's son and asked if he had $200,000, the amount of the last demand, the affidavit states.

The son said he only had $161,822. The next day, Chavez called and told the son to put the money in a "grocery-store shopping bag" and drop it at a "remote location in Santa Fe, NM," according to the affidavit. Later that morning, Chavez called again and said the victim had been released, the affidavit says.

An FBI spokesman has said that because the victim was released safely, agents spent the interim weeks gathering evidence before arresting the two men Tuesday.

Contact Jason Auslander at 986-3076 or :jauslander@sfnewmexican.com.