U.S. Businessman Kidnapped, Released in Tijuana

An American businessman was kidnapped and released in Tijuana last week after his family paid $200,000 in ransom, Mexican officials confirmed Sunday. Two suspects were later arrested and most of the ransom recovered.

The kidnapping of Donald Joseph Winner, 60, of Toledo, Ohio, is the first known seizure of a foreign businessman in Baja California since Mamoru Konno, president of Sanyo Video Components, was abducted in August 1996 while on a company outing. Konno was released after the company paid $2 million in ransom.

Winner, a theater owner, was seized by four kidnappers early Wednesday morning as he left his house in the Hipodromo neighborhood of Tijuana.

His kidnappers, dressed in military attire and armed with automatic weapons, took him to the Guaycura district, where Winner called his family and relayed a ransom demand of $500,000. On Christmas Day, a Winner family member delivered a suitcase filled with $200,000 to an area on the Tijuana-Ensenada highway, where it was retrieved by a man whom Baja California officials identified as Manuel Contreras Ruiz, who had previously worked for Winner installing satellite dish antennas.

Winner was released by the kidnappers shortly thereafter, and Contreras, who had been observed by police, was arrested along with another suspect.

Two others are still at large. Police recovered all but $40,000 of the ransom. Winner spent the weekend with his family and was unavailable for comment.