Migrant Gets 37 Years for Carjacking and Kidnapping an FBI Employee

(PatriotPostNews.com) – A third migrant has been sentenced to more than three decades in prison for carjacking and kidnapping an employee with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Juan Alvarez-Sorto is one of three perpetrators who overtook an FBI agent’s vehicle when their car ran out of gas amid a “drug trafficking trip” from Colorado. When they were in South Dakota, they confiscated the agent’s vehicle and forced him to come with them at gunpoint.

On Friday April 12, the 25-year-old native of El Salvador was sentenced to 37 years in jail. He was also convicted of having illegally entered the United States, following a deportation to his home country.

29-year-old Deyvin Morales was convicted at the same time as Alvarez-Sorto, in January. Karla Lopez-Gutierrez, 29, pleaded guilty to the charges in August. Alvarez-Sorto is the first of the trio to be sentenced, with the other two scheduled to be sentenced on April 26.

According to prosecutors, the three perpetrators set out from Greeley, Colorado, on their drug scheme on May 5, 2022. They had almost run out of gas when they reached the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. At the same time, an FBI agent was speeding in the area and pulled off the road, presuming the Ford Expedition behind him belonged to a tribal officer.

The agent and his vehicle were then taken at gunpoint, an experience which the victim said he is “still haunted by” and stated that his family was also threatened by the criminals. He was able to escape their custody when the vehicle stopped in Hermosa, South Dakota, to refill on gas and buy zip ties.

A week after the incident, Alvarez-Sorto and Morales were taken into custody. Lopez-Gutierrez was arrested several months later, in August 2022, in Loveland, Colorado.

In June 2022, Alvarez-Sorto and Morales were federally indicted on charges of kidnapping and carjacking, as well as using, carrying, and brandishing a firearm while engaged in a violent crime. The maximum sentence, on the kidnapping charge, was up to life in prison.