If the trend is any indication, Jeff is likely right...
lpl
=======
http://www.reuters.com/article/topN...?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true
Criminals targeted in U.S. "kidnap capital"
Wed Oct 8, 2008 2:57pm EDT
By Tim Gaynor
PHOENIX (Reuters) - The criminal underworld in the sun-baked Arizona capital of Phoenix has long enjoyed the hot money profits from illicit smuggling of drugs and people over the border from Mexico.
But now its members are living in fear as they are stalked by kidnappers after their proceeds, authorities say.
Police in the desert city say specialized kidnap rings are snatching suspected criminals and their families from their homes, running them off the roads and even grabbing them at shopping malls in a spiraling spate of abductions.
"Phoenix is ground zero for illegal narcotics smuggling and illegal human smuggling in the United States," said Phil Roberts, a Phoenix Police Department detective.
"There's a lot of illegal cash out there in the valley, and a lot of people want to get their hands on it."
Last year alone, Phoenix police reported 357 extortion-related abductions -- up by nearly half from 2005 -- targeting individuals with ties to Mexican smuggling rings.
In addition, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement police have also recorded cases of kidnappers snatching illegal immigrant day laborers off the street for ransom.
Agents have also recorded a growing number of "virtual kidnappings," in which abductors cold-call an immigrant's family falsely claiming that they are holding them hostage. The tactic is used frequently Mexico, where abduction is a lucrative and sophisticated industry. //snip
=========================
http://www.kpho.com/news/16888051/detail.html
Video: 5i: Phoenix Kidnapping Capital Of U.S.
5 Investigates Phoenix Kidnapping Epidemic
POSTED: 8:04 am MST July 15, 2008
UPDATED: 4:24 pm MST July 15, 2008
PHOENIX -- Phoenix is in the middle of a kidnapping epidemic, police said.
Last year the Phoenix police department handed 359 extortion-related kidnapping cases, Sgt. Phil Roberts said. The ransom demands in these cases can range from $50,000 to $1 million, he said.
Officers said even though this epidemic affects mostly drug and human smugglers, each kidnapping call that comes into the department becomes a rescue mission.
"It doesn't matter to us whether he's a drug dealer, he's a coyote, or whether he's legal or illegal," Roberts told 5 Investigates. "We look at it in the robbery unit as it's a human life. It's a human being out there that's being tortured and we're going to do everything we can to rescue that person."
And even though the victims rarely seem innocent to the eyes of the general public, police said these kidnappings pose a danger to everyone.
"A lot of these abductions…do not occur in the middle of the night [or] at two o'clock in the morning at someone's house," Roberts said. "We've had people abducted in busy shopping malls, in the middle of the street.
"The violence is going to spill over."
The Phoenix police department is now considered one of the best local police departments in the country when it comes to kidnappings and hostage situations, officials said.