Organizer of 4-year-old’s kidnapping imprisoned following HSI Rio Grande Valley, local partner investigation

McALLEN, Texas — A South Texas man was sent to prison following his conviction for conspiracy to commit hostage taking following an investigation conducted by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) with assistance from the Mission Police Department.

Gilbert John Montez, 24, of Edinburg, was sentenced Jan. 16 to 200 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release. In handing down the sentence, the judge noted that when an individual is involved in a criminal enterprise, he can be held accountable for the actions of all the participants involved. The judge said that this case involved a young child being removed from his mother, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, and handed from person to person, which can be very traumatic. The judge also pointed out that the child was being used as a piece of property that had value and could be used for profit.

According to court documents, Montez recruited and hired people to transport and hold a 4-year-old child for ransom. On March 31, 2022, Jose Andres Romo-Torres took the young child from his mother at a house holding smuggled migrants and gave him to two strangers, Larissa Celena Gracia and Nichole Marie Garcia Tichacek, to transport past the Falfurrias Border Patrol Checkpoint to Corpus Christi. The women then handed the child off to Michael Gee Ingram, who transported the child to Houston. Once there, the child was given to Jonathan Orlando Ortiz-De Leon, who took the boy to his apartment in Stafford.

During this time, Montez and Ortiz-De Leon contacted the young child’s father and informed him that his son would not be released until he paid $4,500. On April 3, 2023, Montez hired Carlos Oyervides to help Ortiz-De Leon collect the ransom payment and deliver the child to his father. Oyervides also spoke with the child’s father and told him he needed to pay the ransom to get his son back.

Authorities learned of the scheme and attempted to make arrangements with Oyervides and Ortiz-De Leon for the child’s release, but they failed. They then tracked the pair down to an apartment complex in Stafford, took them into custody, and located the child. The others involved in the scheme all pleaded guilty to their roles and have been sentenced to prison.

Montez pleaded guilty April 24, 2023.

“HSI is committed to aggressively targeting human smugglers and smuggling organizers that have no qualms about using threats and even violence to collect their smuggling fees,” said HSI San Antonio Special Agent in Charge Craig Larrabee. “We’ll continue to work jointly with our law enforcement partners to ensure that those who exploit people in these ruthless ways will themselves face serious consequences.”

“Human smugglers have a bad habit of becoming human kidnappers. Montez targeted a vulnerable family and leveraged a young child’s safety and a parent’s love to extort as much money as possible,” said U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani. “He did not care that this child was passed from stranger to stranger, each time increasing the risk the child would be harmed. Instead, Montez put profit before people and only cared about making more money. Now, because of the Southern District’s prosecutors and investigators, Montez’s heartless business is ‘out of business.’”

Montez remains in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas M. Alexis Garcia prosecuted the case.

HSI San Antonio continues to address the serious public safety threat posed by human smuggling organizations and their reckless disregard for the health and safety of the people they exploit. To report suspicious smuggling activity, you are urged to call 866-348-2423.

HSI is the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel and finance move. HSI’s workforce of more than 8,700 employees consists of more than 6,000 special agents assigned to 237 cities throughout the United States, and 93 overseas locations in 56 countries. HSI’s international presence represents DHS’ largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.

Source: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE.gov)