It read like a scene out of a crime thriller, but for Long Island City residents, the brutal imprisonment and torture of an Ecuadorian businessman inside a secluded warehouse last year served as a reminder of the neighborhood’s gritty past.
According to new information obtained by the Daily News, Jackson Heights accountant Pedro Portugal was kidnapped last April and held for 32 days on the third floor of a grimy warehouse at 38-09 43rd Ave.
For 32 days, Portugal’s captors kicked and punched their 52-year-old hostage, singeing his hands and body with sulfuric acid as they demanded $ 3 million in ransom from his family in Ecuador.
The case was cracked after Portugal’s mother in Ecuador contacted the U.S. State Department and gave them the cellphone numbers the hostage takers used to call her with their demands.
A team of NYPD and federal lawmen used the numbers to determine the location of the warehouse, storm it and free Portugal and arrest his captors. At a pre-trial conference Monday, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown identified three suspects as Christian Acuna, Dennis Alves and Eduardo Moncayo. A fourth suspect is being sought, Brown said.
Long Island City real estate values have shot up 349% since 2000, according to the Trulia real estate database. The warehouse where the drama unfolded sits in an otherwise gentrifying neighborhood just two blocks away from PS 150. Parents of children at the school — as well as other locals — were shocked at the grisly tale.
“We need to have more security,” said real estate agent Joynal Abedin, 50, who has a son and daughter in fifth grade at the school. “Safety is the main concern for our children. It’s a good neighborhood — no question — but this is really surprising.”
Jack’s Ale House, a beer garden that moved into the area last spring, had just opened for business when the Portugal hostage case made national headlines.
“This neighborhood is quiet,” said George Defingos, a chef at the restaurant. “I never hear those kind of things.”
Elliot Gross, a Nassau County lawyer who represents the company that owns the warehouse, 38-09 43rd LLC, speculated that the crime had something to do with “somebody who operates a business incorporated out of the building.”
The building is a mystery to the neighborhood, said Mary Byrnes, who works across the street at Variety Accessories.
“It’s creepy,” said Byrnes, 53. “Basically, in that building, they keep to themselves.”
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