Two men were sentenced to prison time for kidnapping charges in the abduction of a teenagers from northeast Philadelphia to New Jersey in June 2021.
Eduardo Castelan-Prado, 39, of Leonia, N.J., and Jose Ochoa, 32, of Moreno Valley, Calif., were sentenced by a U.S. District Court judge in Philadelphia, according to a U.S. Department of Justice Oct. 29 news release. The two were sentenced to 40 years and five years of supervised release following their convictions on kidnapping charges early last summer.
"The events of this case are every parent's worst nightmare: someone with ill intentions forcefully taking their child," U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero said in a news release. "These defendants kidnapped a teenager in an effort to extort money, a crime for which they have now been convicted and each sentenced to spend 40 years in prison. As was the case here, our investigators and prosecutors will work quickly and tirelessly to identify, locate and charge anyone who attempts this type of violent crime in our district."
Castelan-Prado and Ochoa teamed up with "a third co-conspirator" to kidnap the 17-year-old from the parking lot of a northeast Philadelphia restaurant where he was working June 14, 2021, the news release said. The trio transported the teen across the state line to a New Jersey apartment complex, held him at gunpoint and subsequently demanded $500,000 in ransom from the boy's parents.
Philadelphia police and the FBI tracked phone calls to the apartment complex, rescued the teen two days after his kidnapping and arrested Castelan-Prado and Ochoa, the release reported.
"Ochoa and Castelan-Prado grabbed a teenage boy off the street to use as a human bargaining chip," Jacqueline Maguire, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia division, said in the news release. "They sought to extort his parents, demanding half a million dollars for their child’s survival and safe return. Fortunately, this despicable ploy for money was disrupted and the victim recovered by the FBI and our partners."
Ochoa and Castelan-Prado's sentences "ensure the men behind this violent crime will be held accountable for what they've done and prevented from so terrorizing anyone else’s family," Maguire added, according tot he release.
