31-05-2025
Two await trial in Albuquerque migrant stash house raid
May 30—Two men are accused of holding a group of undocumented migrants hostage at a stash house in Southwest Albuquerque, telling one man's family he would be turned over to the cartel if the ransom wasn't paid.
Isaias David Jose and Tomas Mateo Gaspar are both in federal custody and charged with harboring an illegal alien. Jose is also charged with hostage taking in the case, which came to light after the FBI raided the home March 2.
The FBI said both Jose and Gaspar crossed into the country not long before settling in Albuquerque.
Jose's father spent 60,000 Mexican pesos to smuggle him into the U.S. a year ago, where he first lived in Tennessee, according to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court for the state of New Mexico. Both Gaspar and Jose moved to Albuquerque within a month of the FBI raid.
Gaspar's attorney did not comment on the pending case. Jose's attorney was not available for comment.
The FBI launched an investigation March 1 after being contacted by a concerned relative of a migrant who illegally crossed into the country in January, referred to as John Doe 1. The family reported they hadn't heard from Doe in weeks and received a ransom demand for more than $11,000 in Guatemalan quetzales.
The relative told the FBI that the kidnappers sent a "proof of life" video and threatened to hand Doe over to the Zetas cartel, an infamous cartel enforcement group comprised of former Mexican military officers, according to the affidavit. FBI agents used phone location data to track the phone call to a home in the South Valley and executed a search warrant March 2.
FBI agents raided the home in the 800 block of Aritas SW, north of Rio Bravo and Isleta, and discovered 10 undocumented immigrants and one unaccompanied minor. Jose and Gaspar were also in the residence, where agents seized more than 20 cellphones, a ledger that contained the migrants' names and destinations, along with a bag of the hostages' shoes.
The migrants told FBI agents they were held in locked rooms, and Doe alleged Jose had threatened to turn him over to the "Mexican mafia" if he did not pay $18,000 in two days. Another migrant said the men would yell at them to "be quiet or they would get rid of them," the affidavit said.
Text messages from Jose's phone revealed multiple videos of purported migrants, including some marked as "green light," which FBI agents believed to mean that the videotaped hostages had their ransom paid, according to the affidavit. Jose told agents he filmed five immigrants and sent the videos to a phone number in Mexico.
The FBI said Gaspar told agents a friend was allowing him to stay at the residence while he looked for a job.
Edwin Barker, a California man who owns the property, said he never met Gaspar or Jose and they were not on the lease. He said, of the previous tenants, "I rented to these guys and they told us they were in the landscaping business."
Barker said the FBI called him after the raid, explaining the house was being used to hold kidnapped men from Mexico.
"I (said) if you would have called me beforehand I would have given you a key, you wouldn't have to break all these windows and do all this damage," he said. The agent replied, "That's not how we operate" and told Barker he could apply for reimbursement for the $900 in damage, although nothing was guaranteed.
Barker said after fixing up the windows and door, he recently found a new tenant for the property.
