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Feds investigate human trafficking stop in Kannapolis
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Published: October 12, 2009
KANNAPOLIS - U.S. Customs officials and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police are investigating a human trafficking case after the Highway Patrol stopped a van in Kannapolis Monday.
CMPD received a call Monday morning from a family reporting a kidnapping. Sgt. G.A. Barger of the Highway Patrol said the family met a van carrying 16 people from Houston, Texas to Maryland at Exit 41 on Interstate 85 in Charlotte.
The family hired a company to deliver a family member to them in Charlotte from Mexico. But the driver of the van demanded more money. When the family refused to pay more, the van left with their family member still inside, said Barger.
There were 16 passengers, a majority of them Hispanic, and two of them from Ethiopia, Barger said.
The family called police to report the kidnapping. The van continued north on I-85 into Cabarrus County. Barger said he spotted the van get off at Exit 60 in Kannapolis. He and two units from Concord Police Department stopped the van at the BP station on Dale Earnhardt Boulevard.
"Everyone was safe," Barger said. "No one was hurt. The passengers stayed in the van."
Immigration agents took the two men driving the van and the 16 passengers into custody and impounded the van. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. immigration officers have taken over the case.
Investigators said the two men driving the van were on their way to drop off the passengers at different locations in the state.
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