QUEENS — Two men who helped kidnap and torture a Woodside businessman — holding him in a warehouse for more than a month as they demanded a $3 million ransom in 2013 — were each sentenced Thursday to 13 and a half years in prison, officials said.
Christian Acuna, 38, and Dennis Alves, 36, pleaded guilty last month to first degree kidnapping for their roles in abducting Pedro Portugal in April 2013, according to the Queens District Attorney's office.
Officials say an accomplice, 42-year-old Eduardo Moncayo, pulled Portugal, who was 52 years old at the time, off of a street in Jackson Heights and forced him into a car, throwing a mask over his face before driving him to a warehouse in Long Island City.
The three defendants tied him to a chair and beat him, then forced him to call his mother in Ecuador and ask for a $3 million ransom in exchange for his freedom, according to prosecutors.
The men held Portugal captive for more than a month, burning his hand with acid and threatening to cut his fingers off, officials said.
He was rescued after 32 days when an investigator posing as a safety inspector entered the warehouse and found the victim bound with cloth and duct tape, according to the DA's office.
"Even after being rescued, the victim was deeply traumatized by this experience," Queens DA Richard Brown said in a statement. "Under the circumstances, the sentence imposed by the Court was more than warranted."
Moncayo was sentenced separately last year to 25 years to life, officials said.
Attorneys for Acuna and Alves did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
