Two men have been arrested after they allegedly kidnapped a woman and drilled a hole in her hand – all for the sake of withdrawing £30 using her card.
Kevin Daniel Sanabria Ojeda, 24, and Alexander Moises Arnaez-Gutierrez, 25, are accused of attempted murder, kidnapping and robbery over the horrific incident in Washington state on January 21. Prosecutors allege the two men abducted the 58-year-old victim from her flat in the city of Burien as she returned home from work late in the evening. They are then said to have bundled the woman into a vehicle and fired a gunshot during the ensuing struggle, before subjecting her to hours of torture in an attempt to get her to hand over her belongings.
As they drove towards the Cascade Mountains, the men demanded she hand over her personal and financial information. The victim told police they swiped her purse which contained $20,000 (£15,100) worth of jewellery. Investigators allege the suspects then used a power drill on the woman’s hand to force her to tell them her pin code before using her card to withdraw about $40 (£30).
An arrest report from King County Sheriff’s Office said: “They used a power drill to drill into (the victim’s) hand to get access to her cell phone and bank accounts. They then threatened her by telling her they were going to kill her, kill her family, feed her to the bears and dump her body far away.”
After returning to the highway, one of the suspects allegedly said the victim ‘knew too much’, and told her she would be killed, according to a court affidavit.
Sanabria and Arnaez-Gutierrez allegedly threw her out of the vehicle over a wall by the side of the highway, and shot at her again. The bullet missed – but she pretended she had been hit in the head and played dead.
A statement from prosecutors said: “The suspect who had shot at [the victim] earlier pointed the gun at her and shot at her again. She stated she ducked and was struck in the shoulder. [She] believes the suspect thought he had hit her in the head, so she yelled and played dead.”
According to police, the victim climbed back over the wall and flagged down a passer-by, who called the police. When the woman eventually returned home, she found her car had been stolen.
Police then sent out an emergency alert to neighbouring police forces containing her car’s details, and it was spotted in Lake Oswego, Oregon – more than 170 miles from where the crime had taken place.
Officers also found the car they had used to commit the crime, along with the drill they are alleged to have used on her hand. Police and FBI officers arrested Sanabria at a hotel in Illinois on January 31. Officers said they found the stolen jewellery in his hotel room
Arnaez-Gutierrez was arrested last week in Mercer Island, Washington. Detectives believe Sanabria and Arnaez-Gutierrez are linked to Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang recently accused by the White House of being behind a string of “brutal crimes” in the US, including murders, kidnappings, extortions, drug smuggling, and human trafficking.
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