Drug-related kidnappings on the rise in Gwinnett

ATLANTA - Gwinnett County has seen a rise in drug-related kidnappings this year, fueling fears of increased violence, federal officials say.

Mexican drug cartels move large quantities of cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana into the country to be distributed along the East Coast, Rodney Benson, the special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Agency in Atlanta says. He said drug-related kidnappings have increased over the last three months.

Gwinnett County is a center of Mexican drug cartel activity according to David Nahmias, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. He said the area is attractive to cartels because of easy transportation on I-85 and a large Hispanic population, which makes it easier for traffickers to blend in.

Gwinnett has seen about nine drug-related kidnappings this year. In the most recent, federal agents earlier this month rescued a man bound and chained in a basement in Lilburn. In another case this month, police shot and killed a kidnapping suspect during a ransom pickup. In a third, police arrested nine alleged drug traffickers, including a 16-year-old girl, in Lawrenceville.

Gwinnett County Assistant District Attorney Keith Miles said traffickers are getting younger.

``Our cases are going up,'' he said. ``We got 15-year-olds out here slinging kilos of cocaine. When that's going on in this county, that's a big problem.''

Benson, of the DEA, said representatives of Mexican drug cartels are ``clashing with each other'' in Atlanta.

``We are very concerned about the type of extreme violence we've seen on the Mexican side of the border starting to come to this side of the border and to North Georgia,'' Nahmias said.

Not all kidnapping cases require a police rescue. Three or four in the last six to eight months have been resolved with minimal police effort, Gwinnett police spokesman Illana Spellman said.

In those cases, family members of suspected dealers called police to say their relative has been kidnapped. After a call from police to the victim's cell phone, the kidnappers have released the victim, Spellman said.

Miles said the rise in kidnappings is not a ``blip.'' He said more and more drugs are coming into the county accompanied by violence.

``It's just a matter of time before innocent people get caught in the crossfire,'' Miles said.