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Mom and kids abducted by man working for cartel, feds say. He's convicted in MT
A man accused of trafficking drugs for a Mexican cartel was convicted of federal kidnapping charges after prosecutors said he abducted a mother and her two daughters, taking them to several U.S. states before Mexico, where he 'locked them in' a home and abused them.
Roughly six years later, in 2023, Adolfo Vargas Lepe kidnapped another woman he knew for years from her Wyoming home and took her to Montana, where he used to live, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Montana.
Now, a federal jury in Billings has found Lepe guilty of three counts of kidnapping and one count of making an interstate threat after a three-day trial, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a June 5 news release.
'Lepe traumatized his kidnapping victims, including physically and sexually assaulting them, shooting one of them, and transporting them around the United States and into Mexico,' U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme said in a statement.
'While engaged in that conduct, he also distributed methamphetamine, fentanyl, and cocaine in communities in Montana and elsewhere,' Alme added.
Attorneys appointed by the court to represent Lepe, who used to live in Roberts, didn't immediately return McClatchy News' request for comment June 6.
Roberts is about a 220-mile drive southeast from Helena, Montana's capital.
On June 4, Lepe's trial ended with the jury finding him not guilty of kidnapping the mother of the two girls, but guilty of kidnapping her daughters, one of whom he's accused of sexually assaulting, and the other woman, court records show.
Lepe began dating the mother of the two girls in 2017, before Lepe revealed 'he transported drugs for the cartel' after she found 'a significant amount of methamphetamine,' prosecutors wrote in court filings.
Afterward, prosecutors said he kidnapped the family, took them to multiple states, then confined them to a Mexico residence.
Lepe wouldn't let the woman 'leave his sight because of her knowledge of his drug trafficking,' according to prosecutors, who said he 'threatened to kill her and have cartel members kill her family.'
The woman was repeatedly beaten and threatened with a gun by Lepe, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
The other woman he kidnapped in 2023 was also beaten and abused, including by Lepe pistol-whipping her and shooting her in the legs, according to prosecutors.
He also 'imprisoned her in a dog kennel for hours on end' and 'beat her with bats and metal bars,' prosecutors wrote in court filings.
The woman managed to escape Lepe by fleeing his home, to a local bar to alert the police, according to prosecutors.
Before making it to the bar, prosecutors said she hid for hours in dirt located behind bushes.
He was spotted driving two days later by Carbon County Sheriff's deputies, who were led on a 'high-speed chase' by Lepe until his truck rolled over and he was taken into custody, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Later, an investigation resulted in authorities finding narcotics linked to Lepe, including 'one pound of cocaine and two pounds of meth' and '12.5 pounds of meth and roughly 10,000 fentanyl pills,' prosecutors said.
Lepe, who's facing life in prison, is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 2, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
