EXCLUSIVE: Family Speaks After Belizeans Freed from Virtual Kidnapping in Mexico

Twenty-four-year-old Yaire Mendez, eighteen-year-old Jesslyn Mendez, and twenty-five-year-old Marvin Rosales are back safely with their families after a terrifying ordeal that began with a call claiming a cartel had kidnapped them in Quintana Roo, Mexico.

Mexican authorities confirmed the case was a virtual kidnapping scam, not a physical abduction. Still, the ordeal forced the family into a desperate race to raise money.

According to the girls’ father, Joe Mendez, he was about to begin his shift when he received a call from his eldest daughter.

Mendez told News 5, “Yaire called me and told me, ‘Dad, I’m just calling you to inform you I am okay. My sister is okay. Marvin is okay, only to inform you that we are being taken by the cartel. According to them, they’re the cartel.”

He said minutes later, photos of the three appeared on his phone. “I didn’t know how to respond or anything,” he added, saying a call followed immediately after demanding money. “He said if you want to see them alive again, you have to pay me 350,000 pesos, or else by tomorrow they will be dead.”

“As a father, it’s like a bucket of cold water… I am a mechanic… I don’t have that amount of money. I can’t get that amount of money in the blink of an eye,” he said.

At the same time, Marvin Rosales’ father also began negotiating with the caller, as the perpetrators had contacted him separately. 

Authorities in Mexico were alerted when a school official from the Instituto Tecnológico de Chetumal (ITCH) saw reports of the incident circulating online. 

Mexican authorities contacted the Mendez family and warned that the case appeared to be a virtual extortion scheme. “But we couldn’t run the risk. We don’t know anything from that side,” Mendez said. According to him, Belizean authorities were unable to render help: “They told me they can’t do nothing because Mexico is in another jurisdiction.”

According to Mendez, the perpetrators appeared to have gained access to the victims’ phones and messaging platforms, including WhatsApp. He said his daughters were forced to remain on video calls with the scammers and were instructed to follow their directions while threats were made against them.

“They told her if she doesn’t do this or that, they will kill them because they have somebody that is out there watching them. They even told them, ‘I know where you are. I know what you have. I know everything that you are doing right now.'”

The Rosales and Mendez families were able to gather an amount of money, and by the time Mexican authorities had tracked the victims’ devices, the ransom payment had already been paid.

Despite the relief of their safe return, the ordeal has left both families shaken. “My younger daughter, she’s the one that’s worse. She is the most affected,” Mendez said. “It’ll take some days… a while to overcome this trauma.”