An abduction gang who tied up a pair of flatmates before threatening to kill them during a knifepoint robbery have been jailed for a total of 81 months. The trio of thugs took over the Edinburgh home where the victims were subjected to a terrifying four-hour ordeal.
Gang member Maomar Franco, 36, was caught after a victim later went for a drink in the capital’s El Barrio nightclub and recognised him as its DJ. Alberto Castillo, 36, Alessandro Russo, 32, were traced by cops after the gang looted the victims’ flat.
They ordered one of the men to transfer money from his bank account over his phone. The thugs fled after barricading their captives in a storeroom.
Franco, Castillo and Russo appeared at the city’s sheriff court on Wednesday for sentencing after pleading guilty in March. Sheriff Kenneth Campbell KC jailed each of them for 27 months.
The three men previously admitted abducting Jacob Salaet and Daniel Ceballos, tying their hands and feet with cable ties, and assaulting them. The men also admitted presenting a knife at them, threatening them with violence, and robbing them.
Fiscal depute Ross Price told the earlier hearing how Jacob and Daniel had been in their basement flat in London Street in the New Town at around midnight.
Mr Price said Jacob answered a knock at the door to be confronted by gang members, one carrying a knife, who made “jabbing motions” at his stomach with the blade.
Cable ties were produced from a backpack, the court heard, and used to bind Jacob’s hands and feet on the sofa. The prosecutor said Daniel was “woken by three men by the side of his bed”, and told “Don’t move, don’t move”.
A “chef’s knife” with a 15cm blade was pointed at his stomach and neck, putting him “in fear of his life”, Mr Price added. The gang demanded money and Daniel revealed he had £1715 concealed in a chest of drawers which Russo took.
After Franco, who worked as a guest house manager, secured his wrists with cable ties, the abductors gathered items including a Nintendo Switch and a laptop.
Daniel was told to transfer money from his bank account and compiled, sending £1391 to another man’s account. Mr Price said the transfer was carried out at 1.15am and Daniel was “extremely scared and panicking”
The victims were taken to a storeroom where they were kept for a “few hours”, the court was told, with Franco coming to check on them.
Russo warned the pair not to contact police “or they would return and kill them”, Mr Price said, before the gang “barricaded” them in the storeroom using items pulled in front of the door.
The trio left at 3.55am and Jacob and Daniel managed to push their way out to find other property, including a mobile phone and mountain bike, were gone.
Police traced Castillo and Russo the following day and arrested them. Jacob was later at El Barrio and recognised the “man wearing a surgical mask who tied him up” as Franco, the club’s DJ, Mr Price said. The offences took place between October 27 and 28 2021.
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