Mexico Residents – Brother and Sister – Sentenced to Prison for Kidnapping Victim in Mexico Then Coming to U.S. to Collect Ransom

LOS ANGELES - A brother and sister from Rosarito, Mexico, have been sentenced to federal prison terms for their roles in a kidnapping and ransom scheme in which the brother pretended to act as an intermediary between the victim's family and the kidnappers while his son and sister crossed the border into the United States to collect the ransom money, the Justice Department announced today.

Mario Alex Medina, 55, a.k.a. "Shyboy," was sentenced Monday by United States District Judge Stephen V. Wilson to 25 years in federal prison and was ordered to pay $30,000 in restitution.

Judge Wilson on Monday also sentenced María Alejandra Medina, 52, a U.S. citizen living in Mexico, to eight years in federal prison and ordered her to pay $30,000 in restitution.

At the conclusion of a four-day trial in October 2024, a jury found both Medina siblings guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit hostage taking and one count of conspiracy to demand a ransom payment. The jury also found Mario Medina guilty of one count of making a foreign communication with intent to extort.

On November 5, 2022, Mario Medina directed and helped accomplices break into the house of a neighbor, identified in court documents as "R.V.," kidnapping the victim at gunpoint, pistol whipping him and firing a gun near his head. The next day, one of the co-conspirators placed a ransom call to the victim's family in Los Angeles County and demanded $70,000 for his release. The kidnappers, through WhatsApp, also sent a video of the victim being beaten.

On November 10, 2022, an accomplice called R.V.'s family and threatened to kill R.V. if his family did not pay $30,000. Later that day, Mario Medina - pretending to be an intermediary between R.V.'s family and the hostage takers - told the victim's family to meet at a McDonald's restaurant in San Ysidro, located north of the U.S.-Mexico border, to make the ransom payment.

José Salud Medina, 32, a.k.a. "Gordo," who is Mario Medina's son and María Medina's nephew, and María Medina met the victim's family the next day at the McDonald's restaurant, collected the $30,000 ransom payment from the victim's family, and took the money back to Mexico.

The hostage takers on November 11, 2022, then left R.V. tied up and alone in a small, subterranean trench, where Mexican law enforcement rescued him later that day.

José Salud Medina is in Mexican custody on unrelated charges. He is expected to be tried separately in this case, in which he is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit hostage taking, one count of conspiracy to demand a ransom payment, and one count of making a foreign communication with intent to extort.

The FBI investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Jena A. MacCabe and Derek R. Flores of the Major Crimes Section, and Michael J. Morse of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section prosecuted this case.