Man kidnapped in South Carolina, rescued in Cumberland County
CUMBERLAND COUNTY, N.C. (WTVD) -- Early Tuesday morning, a small army of federal and state officers rescued a 23-year-old man from a home in Cumberland County. Three suspects were arrested.
The FBI said the unidentified victim was abducted last week from a home in Saint Matthews, South Carolina -- a small community south of Columbia.
The victim was taken to a home in the Beaver Dam area. It is a largely rural area near the Cumberland-Bladen County line.
Federal officers said the kidnapping was drug related. According to a criminal complaint filed in federal district court, the victim worked for a Mexican drug trafficking organization. The complaint says while the victim worked for the group, $200,000 worth of marijuana went missing and the organization held the man responsible.
The organization allegedly had the man abducted. The victim's fiance alerted authorities after he never showed up at work, and after she found his car abandoned not far from his home. Then, his family started getting ransom demand phone calls from Mexico.
An FBI spokesperson said the case involved nearly two dozen state and federal law enforcement agencies from Mexico and the U.S.
The criminal complaint lists the three men arrested Tuesday as Juan Manuel Fuentes-Morales, Ruben Ceja-Rangel, and Luis Castro Villeda. All face federal kidnapping charges.
