‘EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A Mexican judge has sentenced one of the border’s “Most Wanted” criminals to 80 years in prison for a botched abduction that resulted in the death of the intended kidnapping victim.
Jesus Alfredo Martinez Mendoza, a.k.a. “El Freddy,” was No. 6 on the “Se Busca Informacion” list of fugitives released by U.S. and Mexican federal officials in El Paso in 2019.
The reputed lead heroin distributor for the Aztecas Old Guard gang in Juarez has been in custody since January 2020. That’s when Juarez police arrested him while allegedly carrying a backpack with 5 kilograms of heroin that he intended to take across the Rio Grande into the United States.
On Monday, the Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office said a judge found “El Freddy” guilty of another crime, the aggravated kidnapping of Adrian Alejandro Ruiz Felix.
According to state officials, the suspect and two accomplices on Feb. 1, 2019, followed their target to Las Misiones shopping center in Juarez, where they assaulted him and attempted to take him to a waiting vehicle outside.
The abduction did not go as planned, as a third party came to the aid of Ruiz, and one of “El Freddy’s” alleged accomplices started shooting, according to police at the time. Ruiz was killed on the spot. Mexican authorities did not say why the Aztecas tried to abduct Ruiz.
The judge also ordered Martinez Mendoza to pay a 2.27 million peso fine ($115,000). “El Freddy” still faces charges of trafficking heroin and engaging in organized criminal activities, the AG’s Office said.
