Thursday, February 15, 2018

Brockton Man Pleads Guilty to Kidnapping



BOSTON – A Brockton man pleaded guilty today in federal court in Boston to the armed kidnapping of a Quincy man and two children.

Diego Pires, 23, pleaded guilty to kidnapping before U.S. District Court Chief Judge Patti B. Saris, who scheduled sentencing for May 16, 2018. In January 2018, co-defendant Malik Bangura, 20, was sentenced to 17 years in prison and two years of supervised release. Sedrick Oliveira, 26, of Stoughton, and Yesenia Diaz, 23, of Brockton, were also charged.

On Oct. 8, 2016, at approximately 10:25 p.m., a 30-year-old man was kidnapped from the driveway of his Quincy home after being struck in the head with a revolver as he got out of his truck, and dragged into a nearby sedan.  The victim had two children strapped into car seats in his truck.

Once the victim was in the sedan, two masked perpetrators, later identified as Pires and Bangura, drove the victim’s truck, with the children, to a secluded location where they unloaded approximately 30 pounds of marijuana and $20,000 from the victim’s truck, into the sedan.  The victim, who was face-down in the backseat of the sedan at gunpoint, begged for his life and the life of the two children who were still in their car seats in the back of his truck.  

Pires, Bangura, Diaz, and Oliveira then drove the sedan with the drugs, cash and the victim, from Quincy to Brockton and called the victim’s wife demanding $100,000.  Law enforcement officers spotted the sedan as it drove through Brockton, recognized the vehicle from a drive-by shooting that occurred in August 2016, and began to follow it. After the defendants recognized the police, they attempted to flee, but ultimately abandoned the sedan in a Brockton driveway. The victim escaped, flagged down law enforcement officers, and described to them the secluded location where the truck had been disserted.  Law enforcement located the truck with the children, who were unharmed.

Diaz was subsequently found standing by the sedan and arrested. She previously pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing. Oliveira was arrested on Oct. 10, 2016, in Stoughton and charged in a federal criminal complaint. He pleaded not guilty to the kidnapping charge. Bangura was arrested and charged in April 2017. Pires remained a fugitive until he was apprehended in October 2017.

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; Mickey D. Leadingham, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, Boston Field Division; Colonel Kerry A. Gilpin, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police; Brockton Police Chief John Crowley; and Quincy Police Chief Paul Keenan, made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily O. Cannon of Lelling’s Organized Crime and Gang Unit prosecuted the case.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The remaining defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

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