Police in Puerto Rico arrested two men Wednesday on extortion charges, catching them in the middle of the transaction in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant on PR-1, across from the Santiago camp entrance in Salinas. The investigation established that the victim, while at the Centro del Sur Mall in Ponce, received a phone call telling him his son had been kidnapped and that he had to deliver $10,000 in cash in exchange for the boy’s release at the Burger King in Salinas.
The man contacted the Police and went to the agreed location, where he received instructions to leave a white envelope with the money in the area of a trash bin in the parking lot. Minutes after he left the envelope, a man ran to pick it up, and agents stopped him. He was arrested along with his companion.
The arrestees were identified as Ángel Luis Pérez Acevedo, 37, and Giovannie E. Correa Ocasio, 33, both residents of the Nemesio R. Canales public housing in Hato Rey. The case was referred to the Criminal Investigations Corps (CIC) of Ponce. Agent Carlos L. Guzmán Velázquez, under the supervision of Sergeant Diana Rodríguez, both assigned to Ponce’s Intelligence and Arrests Division, were in charge of the case.