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Port Authority police grabbed Basilio Garcia in the Bronx’s sprawling 43rd precinct on Sunday, borough Detective Sgt. Michael Giampietro told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
Luis A. Brea, Anthony A. Espinal-Inoa (MUGSHOTS: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF)
Garcia was wanted in the Sept. 2 abduction of a 36-year-old borough man from Main Street in what police said was a failed attempt to collect a debt.
Charges against him include kidnapping, aggravated assault, two weapons counts and a host of charges stemming from a several bogus credit and identification cards that police found in his car, which the trio abandoned after it crashed.
Garcia’s bail is $600,000.
The 36-year-old victim was struck with a blunt object — possibly a gun — and then let out of the car after his abductors realized he didn’t have any money, Cliffside Park Police Chief Donald Keane told CLIFFVIEW PILOT at the time.
Bleeding from the head, he approached a special officer stationed at Anderson and Knox avenues and told him what happened, the chief said. The officer immediately summoned help.
Around the same time, Fairview police issued a broadcast with a description of the silver Acura MDX, with Florida license plates.
Residents had called them after seeing the man beaten and dragged into the car outside the Carlia Court apartments at Main Street and Nagle Streets just after 9:30 p.m.
Fort Lee police quickly began chasing the Acura SUV, Keane said.
All three bailed out on Nordhoff Drive, on Fort Lee’s border with Leonia, after the vehicle crashed. One was caught soon after by a Bergen County K9 unit and another by a Fort Lee officer, the chief said.
An intense search was mounted for Garcia, concentrating on the Leonia area.
Officers from Cliffside Park, Fort Lee and Leonia were joined by Port Authority and Bergen County police, as well as a New Jersey State Police helicopter.
Luis A. Brea, 33, and 32-year-old Anthony A. Espinal-Inoa, also of the Bronx, were charged with kidnapping and aggravated assault. In addition, Brea was charged with criminal resraint and Espinal-Inoa with two illegal weapons counts.
Brea was released two weeks later on $150,000 bail, which a judge had reduced from $500,000 following a hearing.
Espinal-Inoa got the same reduction, but he remained held tonight at the Bergen County Jail.
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