A very reliable source and friend to the family of Dr. Iran Cota-Cota, kidnapped leader of the National Union of Social Security Workers Union, just
informed me that he was freed earlier tonight.
Criminals in prison tied to physician's abduction
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 at 12:01 a.m.
TIJUANA: Criminals operating from a penitentiary in Mexico City were linked to the abduction this month of a well-known physician who was rescued late
Sunday by Baja California agents, authorities said yesterday.
Dr. Irán Cota Cota was found handcuffed by his hands and feet inside a residence 11 days after he was kidnapped outside his Tijuana home. Cota is
secretary-general of a medical union at a federal Social Security Hospital in Tijuana. He holds dual U.S. and Mexican citizenship but lives in
Tijuana, authorities said.
Rommel Moreno Manjarrez, Baja California's attorney general, said that members of his anti-kidnapping squad and agents from the State Preventive
Police participated in Cota's rescue.
At the residence, they detained Guillermo Aguilar Lujano and Jellman Kadef Torrentera Loera, both 22. Moreno said they are members of a kidnapping
ring with links to the Reclusorio Sur Penitentiary in Mexico City as well as a criminal gang operating in Tijuana. The kidnappers had asked for
$300,000 in return for Cota's liberation, but no ransom was paid, authorities said.
The doctor's release was a bright spot in a particularly violent weekend in Tijuana. From 5 p.m. Friday to midday yesterday, authorities counted 23
killings, including that of a man found hanging from a bridge early yesterday. There have been 43 violent deaths in the city so far this month, the
Baja California Attorney General's Office reported yesterday afternoon. That brings the year's total to 575.
