A gang who kidnapped and tortured a man and blackmailed his family have been jailed today for a total of more than 76 years.
%image(15294639, type="article-full", alt="Victor Latali and Aaron "Rizla" Assante")
The group of seven held the 20-year-old victim against his will for almost 24 hours, inflicting countless injuries including burning him with an iron.
The kidnappers demanded £100,000 from his family for his release and threatened to kill him if they didn’t comply.
Victor Latali, 21, of Hooper Road, E16, Ryan “Rico” Ince, 20, of Bingley Road, E16, and Josh Smith, from E16, were found guilty of conspiracy to kidnap, conspiracy to falsely imprison and conspiracy to blackmail following a trial at the Old Bailey. Latali was imprisoned for 14 years while Ince and Smith were both sentenced to ten years in jail.
At an earlier hearing, Daniel “Soopz” Alleyne, 21, of Caulfield Road, E6, Aaron “Rizla” Assante, 22, of Moorfield, Harlow, and Albertino “Albi” De-Santos Santana, 21, of Sark Walk, E16, and Enrique “Ricky” Santana, 20, of Sark Walk, E16, pleaded guilty to the same three counts.
Alleyne, Assante. De-Santos Santana were each imprisoned for 11 years and four months and Santana was imprisoned for eight years and eight months.
The victim’s terrifying ordeal began after he went to jumpstart his car in a Beckton car park with a friend on September 24 last year.
While they were there, two unknown men took the victim’s car keys and demanded £500 for their return. The men didn’t resist but after the group had left they contacted an associate to see if he could help track down who had taken the key and help get them back.
This associate took the victim to a flat in Fords Park Road, E16, where they were met by Ince. Once inside the victim was grabbed by Alleyne and dragged into the living room where Alleyne, and Latali and Assante, stripped him naked.
The three men then proceeded to violently assault the victim with punches, kicks, a Stanley knife and steam from an iron.
A demand of £100,000 for the victim’s release was made in a phone call to his brother with the threat that if it wasn’t paid in 20 minutes then the victim would be killed. A second phone call made 15 minutes later had the victim screaming in pain as he was burned and assaulted.
Calls to the victim’s brother continued with demands for money and the victim continued to be tortured with a hot iron pressed on his leg and, what he was told was a gun, held to his head, all while he was duct-taped naked to a chair. During this time Albertino, Santana and Smith also came to the address.
Sometime between 2am and 3am the following day the victim was given some of his clothing back and a T-shirt was placed over his head while he moved to a block of flats in Claremont Close, E16.
The ordeal ended shortly after 2pm when the occupier of the address came home to find the group inside the property and ordered them all to leave.
The victim was forced into a car by the kidnappers which was stopped by armed police.
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