What’s interesting about this story, is the method that Gus Zamora uses in order to snatch these children, to get them back to their parents. The planning, the risk of getting arrested in another country, the emotions of the family and the amazing successes of Gus and his company are a fascinating study. He hasn’t been arrested, and he has a pretty amazing track record of success. I highly recommend reading this entire story and listening to the audio tape of one of his snatches.
On a side note, it looks like Gus worked for CTU at one point, and it would be interesting to hear from those folks about this article?
My question for Gus, is if he has ever thought about going after Joanne Chesimard? There is a pretty sizable bounty on her head, and that cop killer needs to be brought back to the US. –Matt
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The Snatchback
November 2009
by Nadya Labi
The Atlantic
ON A HUMID Thursday afternoon in February, I am riding in a rented van in Central America with a man who abducts children for a living. The van’s windows are tinted, and Gustavo Zamora Jr. is speeding east on a two-lane highway toward Siquirres, a town buried in the lush abundance of eastern Costa Rica. Gus is planning to snatch Andres, a 9-year-old American boy who has been claimed by too many parents. Sitting behind me is one of them: Todd Hopson, a 48-year-old lawyer from Ocala, Florida, who considers himself the boy’s father, by rights of love and U.S. law. Ahead of me in the front passenger seat is Gus’s 22-year-old son and partner, Gustavo Zamora III.
“That’s too far for a switch,” the elder Zamora, 53, is saying, pointing to a hotel 10 miles outside of Siquirres. His plan is to use two vehicles for what he calls the “recovery,” or “snatchback.” Once he gets Andres, he intends to drive a white Toyota SUV to a switch point, where he will abandon the SUV and put Andres in the van. That way, any witnesses to the snatchback will report seeing the SUV headed west in the direction of the capital, San José—while in fact Gus and Andres will be in the van headed southeast toward Panama. But this hotel won’t work. “We definitely can’t come all the way back down this way,” Gus says. “I want to make time.”