Yes, our security is at risk

The kidnapping of MLB player Wilson Ramos is an example of why allowing "special rich people" to bypass our elevated TSA screenings will not work. I am sure Ramos was told his family in Venezuela would be harmed if he does not help the gang who kidnapped him. He may even have had childhood dealings with current gang members. Who knows what really happened. He could have been a message for other players, that the gangs can successfully kidnap at will. Three other MLB baseball players from Venezuela have already had family members kidnapped. Will Ramos have to testify in court about hie kidnappers...and will he? In many countries, the police will aid the gangs for cash. Yes, we are less safe in the US - thanks Congress.
Below is an AP article on the kidnapping.
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CARACAS, VENEZUELA (AP)
Venezuelan police rescued Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos on Friday, two days after he was kidnapped, officials announced.


UNSAFE AT HOME
Ramos rescued, authorities say
Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami said on state television that Ramos was ''safe and sound'' and that he was rescued by police. He said the circumstances weren't immediately clear.

Information Minister Andres Izarra initially reported the rescue via Twitter, saying Ramos was ''found alive by security forces in mountainous zone.''

Armed men seized Ramos at gunpoint Wednesday night outside his home in a working-class neighborhood in the city of Valencia. Authorities said Thursday that they had found a stolen SUV used by the kidnappers abandoned in a nearby town.

The abduction was the first known kidnapping of a major league baseball player in a country that has dozens of players on big league rosters in the US, and it brought a renewed focus on worsening violent crime in Venezuela.

Security has increasingly become a concern for Venezuelan players and their families as a wave of kidnappings has hit the wealthy as well as the middle class. Relatives of several Venezuelan major leaguers have previously been kidnapped for ransom, and in two cases have been killed.


INSIDE SCOOP
An american ballplayer talks to Jon Paul Morosi about his experience playing baseball in Venezeula.
Bodyguards typically shadow major leaguers when they return to their homeland to play in Venezuela's winter baseball league, but it was unclear what precautions, if any, Ramos was taking while at his family's home.

Major League Baseball officials said it was the first kidnapping of a major leaguer that they could recall.

Polls consistently say rampant crime is the top worry of Venezuelans. The country has one of the highest murder rates in Latin America, and the vast majority of crimes go unsolved. The number of kidnappings has soared in recent years.
baseball
Fans in both Venezuela and Washington had held candlelight vigils and prayed for his safe release

We must stop the predators

Joseph Son, 40, was convicted of one count of torture in August after his DNA linked him to the abduction of a then-19-year-old victim as she walked her dog near her apartment on Christmas Eve.

Son and a co-defendant, Santiago Lopez Gaitan, 40, drove the woman to Huntington Beach at gunpoint, where they raped and sodomized her in the back of the car. They repeatedly threatened to kill her, hitting her with the pistol and telling her she was going to die.

The badly injured woman begged for her life, prosecutors said, and the two men released her naked and blindfolded with her own pants.

Police collected DNA evidence, but couldn't match it to her attackers until Son was required to provide a DNA sample after he pleaded guilty to felony vandalism in 2008 and violated probation.

Son's co-defendant was sentenced to 17 years and four months in state prison after he pleaded guilty in January to five felonies, including kidnapping and sodomy by force in concert.

BARCELONA - One of Europe's largest brothels has opened in northeastern Spain, employing up to 150 prostitutes, the Spanish press said Friday.
The Paradise brothel opened Thursday night in La Jonquera with 80 rooms and two showrooms, catering for up to 150 prostitutes each paying 70 euros (100 dollars) a day for room and meals.

Owner Jose Moreno (is this the drug guy?) was quoted by the El Pais daily as saying it aimed to draw many clients from just across the French border, each paying an average 60 euros for half an hour with a prostitute.

Moreno has reportedly been charged but not detained for allegedly being part of a gang trafficking men and women from Brazil who were forced into prostitution. The girls are said to perform 2,000 jobs a night. The outside of the building has men posted and the inside has long halls, darkened. (I am guessing there are torture chambers, dungeons and dead bodies in there somewhere.) I assume boys are kept in there also, but no information was found to answer this. Of course, sexual slavery, child abuse and abductions are going to be issues that need to be investigated.

The brothel says it is the biggest in Europe but there are others, in Germany and Scandinavia for example, that claim to have more rooms.