Isabel Perez-Arellanez, Hostage Taking, Arizona 2014

A notorious smuggler, Isabel Perez-Arellanez, 43, of Guasave, Sinaloa, Mexico, has been sentenced to 70 years in prison for her role in holding two Mexican nationals and one Guatemalan national hostage in the Arizona desert.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, on March 5, 2014, U.S. District Chief Judge Raner C. Collins handed down the sentence to Perez-Arellanez after a federal jury found her guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit hostage taking, three counts of hostage taking, four counts of possession of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, and one count of illegal alien in possession of a firearm.

In March 2012, Perez-Arellanez and two co-defendants encountered the three victims, who had become lost and separated from their smuggling groups in the remote Tumacacori Mountains, approximately 50 miles south of Tucson. The defendant held the three victims at gunpoint for two to three days, forcing the victims to contact family members living in the United States to extort money from them.

Once the victims’ family members wired between $900 and $1,500 to the defendants’ Western Union accounts in Mexico, the defendant abandoned the victims in the desert without food and water. Eventually, the three victims made their way to Interstate 19 and reported the crime to Border Patrol, who apprehended the defendants as they traveled southbound towards Mexico.

At the scene of the apprehension, agents found a loaded 9mm pistol and personal effects belonging to the victims. The investigation in this case was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the U.S. Border Patrol, with assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The prosecution was handled by Rui Wang and Matthew C. Cassell, Assistant U.S. Attorneys, District of Arizona, Tucson.

The case number is CR-12-1025-TUC-RCC, and the release number is 2014-014.

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