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Eduardo Castelan-Pardo, 39, of Leonia, New Jersey, and Jose Ochoa, 32, of Moreno Valley, California were sentenced to four decades behind bars, said US Attorney Jacqueline Romero on Wednesday, Oct. 19.
Castelan-Pardo and Ochoa were found guilty of kidnapping an unnamed 17-year-old Philadelphia boy in June 2021.
Prosecutors said the pair and one other man abducted the teen as he was leaving work at a Philly restaurant and drove him to an apartment in Bergen County, New Jersey.
The men brought the boy to a garden apartment complex in Leonia, where they held the teen captive while demanding $500,000 from his parents, a complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia says.
At one point, the captors threatened to resort to "plan B" – without specifying what that was – if they didn't get their money. They even let the boy’s mother speak to him as proof that he was still alive, the complaint says.
Early on the morning of June 16, 2021, the FBI stormed the apartment. They found the boy blindfolded on a couch. Next to him, holding a gun, was the accused ringleader.
He pointed the gun at the agents, who shot and killed him, the criminal complaint says. The boy was physically unharmed, it says. Castelan-Pardo and Ochoa were arrested at the scene. Both men are being held at FDC Philadelphia, according to Bureau of Prisons records.
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