Five Arrested in Kidnapping of Sanyo Executive

SAN DIEGO — Five men believed to be involved in the August kidnapping of a Japanese business executive in Tijuana were arrested in the Mexican state of Sonora, authorities said Thursday.

Police arrested the men Monday in the town of Agua Prieta after they allegedly spent U.S. dollars with serial numbers that matched the cash paid to free an abducted Chihuahua businessman in August, said Carlos Castillo, the deputy attorney general of Sonora.

Castillo said one of the men, Cornelio Galindo Perez, has confessed to participating in the Aug. 10 abduction of Mamoru Konno, then president of Sanyo Video Components, but authorities believe they were all involved.

Konno was held for eight days and released unharmed after his kidnappers were paid $2 million in unmarked U.S. currency. His abduction generated tremendous pressure from top officials in Japan and Mexico to apprehend those responsible and calm the fears of the growing community of foreign executives who work in Tijuana.

Castillo said the five arrested men were members of a notorious kidnapping band led by a Sinaloa fugitive, Jose Maria Serrano Villa. Authorities suspect that the men were plotting to kidnap the former mayor of Agua Prieta at the time of their arrest. Serrano is still at large, Castillo said.

The five suspects were brought before a judge Wednesday to answer to preliminary charges in connection with several kidnappings and the 1995 slaying of Reynaldo Diaz Brown, a businessman they allegedly abducted in Ciudad Obregon in Sonora state, Castillo said. The judge has until the weekend to decide whether there is enough evidence to proceed with the case against them.

The men are expected to eventually be turned over to authorities in Baja California, Chihuahua and Sinaloa to face related charges, Castillo said.

“We believe they were all involved in the Konno kidnapping,” Castillo said. “We have been looking for this group for some time.”

Jaime Cortez, an assistant to Sonora Gov. Manlio Fabio Beltrones, said the arrests were “good police work.”

Castillo identified the other suspects as Honorio Luque Verdugo, Gabriel Alberto Rojo Zavala, Jesus Alberto Lugo Reyes and Genovevo Lugo Galindo. All are between 21 and 24 years old, he said.

The only previous suspect arrested in the Konno kidnapping, a Tijuana cabdriver, was detained in mid-September but released a few days later after two dozen witnesses testified that he was attending a baptism the day the Konno kidnapping took place.

The Konno kidnapping was the first known abduction of a foreign executive at one of Mexico’s expanding maquiladoras, the foreign-owned light assembly plants that use low-cost labor to make goods sold largely to the United States. The Sanyo plant in Tijuana assembles a line of appliances, televisions and other goods, employing 5,000.