A court denied bond for a duo charged in connection with a federal kidnapping case, records show.
Last week Ricardo Sanchez and Cipriano Vargas appeared via video conference for their respective detention hearings.
The Rio Grande City men face federal kidnapping charges related to their alleged involvement in an August 2020 incident in which they allegedly held an Edinburg man against his will, according to the unsealed indictment against them.
(Read: Men face charges in kidnapping at San Juan church)
The incident stemmed from a property dispute between the men and the alleged victim, the indictment stated.
The case was initially investigated by the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office, and after the arrests, the sheriff’s office said in a statement that Sanchez and Vargas were two of six men who held the 21-year-old man against his will.
On Aug. 17, 2020, the defendants coaxed a 21-year-old Edinburg man to the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle in San Juan, where they allegedly beat him before taking him to another location by threatening him with a gun.
The alleged victim was subsequently “rescued” as a result of a traffic stop when they pulled over a “suspicious vehicle” driven by Sanchez, the record stated.
Texas Department of Public Safety troopers working in the 3900 block of Albanian Street as part of a narcotics investigation pulled over the defendants and the man they had taken by force as they left a residence in the area.
“As DPS Troopers interviewed (Sanchez), they observed the front passenger, a 21-year-old male requesting for Troopers to help him. Troopers quickly learned the 21-year-old man was being held against his will,” the release from the sheriff’s office stated at the time. “The victim claimed he was bound with black electrical tape and beaten.”
Authorities identified Sanchez as the driver and Vargas, 21, as a passenger sitting in the rear seat of the vehicle.
Ultimately, authorities arrested four others located at the residence that Sanchez and Vargas left moments before they were pulled over.
The release from the sheriff’s office at the time stated that a search warrant led to the discovery of two firearms and “other items” they say were used to restrain the 21-year-old.
The federal indictment against the two men, filed in February, alleges the men “willfully and unlawfully seize(d), confine(d), inveigle(d), decoy, kidnap, abduct, carry away,” the alleged victim for ransom or reward.
In addition to the federal charges, the two men face state aggravated kidnapping charges. Both are set for trial in state district court in November, court records show.
Both men will be held in federal custody pending their respective trials, court notes show.
