FBI Media Release
Special Agent in Charge Manuel E. Mora

660 Mesa Hills Drive El Paso, TX 79912

To: All print and broadcast media

Contact: Special Agent Andrea Simmons, 915.832.5373

Subject Arrested for May Kidnapping

Manuel E. Mora, Special Agent in Charge of the El Paso Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), announced today that Noe Guadalupe Ochoa, 20 years of age, was arrested by the FBI on November 2, 2006, for his role in a May 4, 2006, kidnapping.

Ochoa, of Sunland Park, New Mexico, was arrested on five separate charges stemming from the May incident. The charges include conspiracy to kidnap; kidnapping a minor (18 U.S.C. 1201); using a firearm in a crime of violence (18 U.S.C. 924); possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute (21 U.S.C. 841); and conspiracy to distribute marijuana (21 U.S.C. 846).

On May 4, 2006, a 16-year-old male was kidnapped at gunpoint in El Paso and taken to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, where he was held for ransom. The 16-year-old was recovered safely in Mexico by Mexican law enforcement and returned to the U.S. on May 6, 2006.

Previously, Jonathan Ocon of Albuquerque, his brother, Ivan Ocon, of Las Cruces, and Lucas B. Wittmayer, of Albuquerque, were indicted on May 17, 2006, on federal kidnapping charges related to the disappearance of the El Paso youth. The Ocon brothers were arrested June 19, 2006. An arrest warrant is still outstanding for Wittmayer.