First of all, let’s make it clear that the actual kidnapping didn’t take place in that town, but rather that it was in Vélez-Málaga but that the victim was released in Vélez de Benaudalla.
It was around 17.30h on Monday the 3rd when three individuals wearing ski masks and carrying guns burst into a car-repair shop on the La Pañoleta trading estate in Vélez-Málaga. They grabbed the owner and stuffed him into the boot of their car, to the astonishment of his wife and his mechanics.
Hours later the victim appeared in Vélez de Benaudalla dazed, soaking wet and with signs of having been beaten up. He went into a nearby lottery office on Calle Mariana Pineda (that’s the main drag) in search of help. Sporting a black eye, he asked the lottery-office owner for the use of a phone to call his wife.
However, the lottery-office owner wasn’t the first person he had turned to for the use of a phone but he was the first to offer the use of his. He got through to his wife and she said that she was on the way but she was advised by the Policía Nacional in Vélez-Málaga to let them go and pick him up as it is a criminal investigation.
The victim was shivering from cold because he was wet through so the lotero took him to the bar across the street, Uanmi to get a hot drink. I spoke with Moises in the Bar Umami this morning about what had happened. He confirmed that he looked like he had been roughed up and explained how he had been kidnapped in own his own premises. He hadn’t said why he had been taken nor gave any details of who had taken him.
The police soon arrived and took him straight to the Hospital Comarcal de la Axarquía, where his cuts and bruises were treated. He was discharged early Tuesday morning so that he could go home and recover.
As to the motives of the kidnapping, it remains a mystery at the moment and the victim was saying much to either or the lottery-office owner about who it could have been. However, reportedly, this ‘outing’ had been his second warning from his aggressors. Neither is it clear why they dumped him in Vélez de Benaudalla . In the meantime, the incident is being investigated by the Unidad contra las Drogas y el Crimen Organizado (UDYCO).
(News: Velez de Benaudalla, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)
Keywords: Kidnapping, Car-Repair Workshop, Velez-Málaga, Beaten Up, Dumped, Policía Nacional
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