Cancún Kidnapper Gets 100 Years for Workers’ Disappearance

Cancún, QR — A Cancún judge sentenced a kidnapper to 100 years in prison. José Asterio Triano Castillo was found guilty of the forced disappearance of two construction workers from Cancún back in 2022.

On Monday, he was ordered to serve 50 years in prison for each of the men he was found guilty of kidnapping. According to local officials, José Asterio Triano Castillo was part of a criminal group that forced workers at a construction site in Cancún’s Hotel Zone to sell drugs on their behalf.

The two workers he is accused of kidnapping were last seen at their workplace in September 2022, after leaving home to go to work. They were never heard from again.

Police say José Asterio Triano Castillo took them to a wooded area where “cries for help” were heard after they refused to sell narcotics. Their bodies have never been recovered. Neither of the missing persons has been publicly named.

In a statement, local police reported that “the crime for which the defendant was convicted occurred on September 15, 2022 in Cancún. José Asterio Triano Castillo was a member of a criminal group operating in the construction area of a lodging center located in the hotel zone which was dedicated to the sale and distribution of narcotics among the workers at the site.

A Cancún judge sentenced him to two 50-year sentences for each of the men. “The two victims, who worked at the construction site, were systematically forced to buy drugs from the criminal group to which the now convicted man belonged.

“On September 14, 2022, the victims left their homes to go to work, and when they did not return and all contact with them was lost, a search and investigation began.

“The suspect was one of the last people to have contact with the victims and participated in their kidnapping by taking them, along with other individuals, to a wooded area near the lagoon from where cries for help were heard.

“The motive for this action arose from the victims’ refusal to buy drugs; the whereabouts of the victims remain unknown.”

José Asterio Triano Castillo was charged and given an exemplary sentence of 100 years in prison, 50 for each victim, plus a fine of 1,731,960 pesos and material damages of 864,350 pesos for each victim.