A 23-year-old Donna man who held two men hostage and demanded ransom was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, U.S. Attorney Jennifer B. Lowry said Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Randy Crane sentenced Miguel Angel Castillo to 240 months in federal prison for keeping two men who entered the country illegally against their wills in 2019.
Castillo pleaded guilty in January of last year and will have to serve three years of supervised release after his sentence is complete.
This was Castillo’s third time in federal court following two prior convictions for alien smuggling.
The last offense occurred while Castillo was still on federal probation.
“In August 2019, two men illegally entered the United States in hopes to reunite with their families in New Jersey and California,” the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a news release Thursday. “As part of the smuggling attempt, they stayed at Castillo’s stash house in Donna.”
Castillo held the two men against their will for two weeks, from Aug. 1-15, and forced them to call their family members to request ransom money — all while threatening to kill them with a firearm if they didn’t comply.
One of the victim’s family members paid over $6,000 for his release.
On August 15, 2019, the two men were transported to a motel in Donna where they were able to obtain a phone and call for help.
Castillo remained in custody Thursday pending his transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility.
