Four New York men who admitted to kidnapping and holding a New Jersey man for ransom have been sentenced to several years in prison, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
The four men — Chiahao Lee, Albert Ferrelli and Gabriel Anthony, of Queens, and Fa Deng, of Staten Island — had previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit interstate kidnapping.
Ferrelli, 52, was sentenced to nearly 21 years in federal prison and five years of supervised release; Lee, 32, received a 15-year sentence and three years of supervised release; Anthony, 36, was sentenced to 14 years in prison and three years of supervised release.
Deng was handed the shortest sentence: 12 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay a $200,000 fine.
According to prosecutors, the four men drove to a residence in Fort Lee, N.J. on April 5, 2022 to kidnap an unnamed victim. While Deng, and Lee waited in the vehicle, Ferrelli and Anthony entered the home, bound the victim’s hands and placed duct tape over his eyes and mouth. The two men then forced the victim into the vehicle.
The four men later sent the victim’s wife a photograph showing the victim “bound and duct-taped.” They also demanded a ransom of approximately $680,000, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey said in a news release.
Investigators found what appeared to be “duct tape with pieces of latex gloves stuck to it” at the victim’s home.
After reviewing surveillance camera footage, detectives identified a gray minivan that had been used in the abduction.
Other surveillance footage showed the vehicle crossing the George Washington Bridge from Fort Lee into Manhattan, and later crossing into the Bronx and finally into Queens.
The following day, NYPD officers responded to an incident in Queens and saw Ferrelli “guarding the door to a building” on Prince St., in Flushing. They also heard a man screaming for help, according to court documents.
When officers got into the building, they found the victim. His hands were bound and his eyes and mouth were covered with duct tape, police said.
The gray minivan used in the kidnapping was later found parked in the driveway of Lee’s home in Queens. Records showed that the minivan had been rented by Lee’s wife at LaGuardia Airport a day before the four men drove to New Jersey, authorities said.
