A convicted kidnapper who snatched a Woodside businessman off the streets and held him hostage in Long Island City for more than a month has begun a lengthy prison stay of his own.
Eduardo Moncayo, 42, of Lyndhurst, NJ, was convicted earlier this month of orchestrating the plot to kidnap the 52-year-old businessman and hold him for a $3 million ransom back in April 2013. Moncayo was sentenced on Monday, Oct. 25, to spend 25 years to life behind bars.
According to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, Moncayo spotted the businessman on Roosevelt Avenue near 88th Street in Jackson Heights on April 18, 2013, and called him by name. Moncayo then displayed what appeared to be a police badge and, along with a co-defendant, forced him inside a nearby SUV. There, the suspects punched the man about the body and threw a mask over his face to prevent him from seeing anything.
The suspects then drove to a warehouse on 43rd Avenue in Long Island City and brought the businessman to a room, where he was forced to sit in a chair and was regularly assaulted. The kidnappers ordered the man to call family members in Ecuador and ask for a $3 million ransom in exchange for his release.
Prosecutors said the man was held in that LIC room for more than a month, from April 18 through May 20, 2013, and was repeatedly tortured. The assaults caused the victim to lose several teeth. At one point, his hand was burned with acid, and his captors threatened to cut off his fingers and even kill him.
The businessman was finally freed on May 20, 2013, through an operation conducted by the NYPD Major Case Squad. He was found by police with his hands bound with cloth and duct tape.
“This was a terrifying ordeal for the victim,” Brown said in a statement. “The sentence imposed today was more than warranted.”
Two of Moncayo’s alleged associates — Dennis Alves, 35, and Christian Acuna, 38 — are currently awaiting trial on related charges.
