NYPD: Businessman tortured, held for ransom for month in Queens warehouse

By Associated Press,






NEW YORK — A businessman was snatched from a New York City street in broad daylight, then held captive for more than a month in a warehouse where he was bound and burned with acid as he was held for a $3 million ransom his family back in Ecuador did not have, authorities said.

Pedro Portugal, 52, was found this week by detectives who had been monitoring phone calls, noticed pizza deliveries to a deserted area in Queens and zeroed in on the warehouse, police said. Three men were arrested and charged with kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment; one is still believed to be at large in the U.S., and three fled to Ecuador, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Thursday.