Story By: Jonathan Macias, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
Video Credit:CEN
This is the moment a businessman is rescued by helicopter after fleeing teenage kidnappers holding him in the middle of a Colombian desert.
He had reportedly been abducted by an indigenous group that wanted almost 500 GBP for his release in mid July.
According to reports, Ali Sayed Ahmad Coronil, a half-Lebanese, half-Paraguayan businessman, was found half-naked in the north-eastern Colombian department of La Guajira.
Local media said that the man had spent almost two months sleeping in a plastic sheet in the middle of the desert while being watched by two teenage kidnappers.
Video Credit: CEN/@GaulaPolicia
It is suspected that the businessman was taken by the indigenous group who allegedly demanded 2 million COP (480 GBP) for his release.
According to reports, the police found the moment Coronil was abducted by men in a pickup truck while reviewing the CCTV footage in the area where he was last seen.
A witness then told the authorities where the man was being held and the police reportedly intercepted telephone conversations of the suspects demanding the ransom.
With the exact coordinates, the police were able to carry out a rescue operation and Coronil was safely extracted from his desert location after fleeing from his captors.
According to the authorities, the kidnapping was part of an alleged pact between the Wayuu people (Native American ethnic group from the Guajira Peninsula) and a Venezuelan gang.
The investigation is ongoing.
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