held for ransom

In a federal indictment filed in July and not previously reported, prosecutors allege that the victim — identified by the initials N.C.L. — was one of four immigrants held for ransom in L.A. after entering the country illegally and being transported from Arizona.

For two years, the boy had been among Nigeria’s ghosts, one of at least 1,500 schoolchildren and others seized by armed groups and held for ransom.

“Few things can be as terrorizing to a parent as having your child kidnapped and held for ransom under threat of physical harm,” U.S.

Zambrano shared his story with Timoteo: how he fled to Colombia in 2016, and then to Peru; and how last year he borrowed $8,000 to make a five-month journey to New York, during which he said the family was held for ransom by armed men in Mexico for a month.

"I'm frightened of detention, kidnapping, being held for ransom and forcible deportation... it's difficult to survive in Libya," he said.