The Police have announced the arrest of four men who are accused of having phoned car importer Avelino Abreu to demand a ransom of RD$1 million for the company’s legal advisor Rafael Batista Fernandez. Batista had been missing since Wednesday. At the time of the phone call, his original kidnappers had already murdered him. The police have revealed that the motive for the kidnapping was a RD$200,000 property scam for which Batista had taken one of the kidnappers to court. The police said that Avelino Abreu called the police instead of negotiating with the men on the phone who claimed to have Batista. The Police say they have arrested 20-year-old Jairo Luis Peña Almonte, 19-year-old Elido Leuris Reyes, 27-year-old Yeiso Andoremi Lopez, and 19-year-old Emmanuel Brito Gonzalez for the attempted scam. The men said that after hearing of the disappearance of Batista on the news, they decided to capitalize on the situation.
