A 35-year-old gentleman was detained on Saturday while boarding an Amtrak train from Chicago to Miami with a plan to kidnap a young child from a Fort Lauderdale class, according to federal agencies.
Homeland Security Investigations agencies claim they also had texts sent as Devontay Shields ‘ theft plan:
It will be simpler to handle one of the kids because we can influence them with chocolate and playthings when we remove them from the school. All we need to do is grab one of the kids and hold them. There are no less than five wealthy kids. I sent you want they pay ( for ) each child, bro. We need it …”
This was the subject of a text message exchange between Shields and a HSI cause, a drug dealer and convicted criminal who had assisted the government in earlier investigations this year, according to the criminal problem.
Shields, who is represented by national public defender Johanathan D. Brooks, made his first appearance in court on Monday in Chicago’s federal prosecutor. Shields, from the northern Illinois town of Danville, waived his straight to a detention reading for the time and remains in U. S. Marshals prison.
” Imma get me a little boy,” asks the girl.
On November 11, the HSI cause told exclusive agents that Shields wanted to meet with the reporter’s trusted friend, who would also assist the authorities with this situation. Both were doing it as” cooperation credit” for the friend, and they are awaiting sentencing after being found guilty of two counts of” traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor” in a federal court in the United States.
The governmental agency cause shared the details of the Shields ‘ text messages with the special agents about the kidnapping and holding of a young child at a private school in Fort Lauderdale. In language messages to the cause, Shields explained his plan and, to show the parental poverty at the university, showed the education charged.
The company supply took the friend and Shields to a meeting in a car full of recording equipment the following day. The criminal complaint says the devices picked up Shields telling the friend,” Imma get me a little boy”, asking for the$ 1, 000 from the friend to fund the plan and saying he’d ask for a$ 100, 000 ransom. According to weapons, the entire process could take three or four days.
Shields purchased the Lankybox toys, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle activity figure, at a Target that day. The complaint also claims that a federal agency supply photographed the certificate and gave it to Homeland Security agents, removing one level of monitoring while Shields paid cash.
Over the next three weeks, the supply drove Shields to obtain postal relations at a Chicago AutoZone and a BB gun at a Cabela’s in Hammond, Indiana, a town in the Chicagoland cities.
According to the problem, Shields claimed in a recorded talk with the cause that he had reserved hotel and rental cars for the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area on Saturday.
” Spears stated,’ As soon as I touch down I’m getting to it’ and continued to say,’ I’m trying to make certain I hear that over the TV before overnight,’ the problem said”. Shields stated that he would return the child to the resort.
Post-ransom pay, Shields planned to pull straight up to Illinois, a 22-hour vacation if you average 60 miles per hour.
” Spears stated that’ If it get too warm, basically’ I’mma getting an Amtrak ‘ and that’ If I the n’t travel, getting dropped off at the Amtrak, getting my passport and I’m gone,’ the complaint said. When the firm cause asked why he was needed, Shields said,” To get me the money”.
When Shields and the cause were taken into custody on Monday night, they were waiting for a train to Miami. Shields claimed he entered the Chicagoland place on Wednesday and that he had waived his right to remain silent. His brother-in-law was taking him to Miami, he said, because he’d never been there.
A strategy to steal a child? He did n’t know about that. The products and the flap relationships came from his brother-in-law, Shields said before admitting he bought them, the problem says.
The Justice Department says the research was the function of Amtrak, Carpentersville, Illinois, Chicago and Chicago Metropolitan Rail officers, Homeland Security Investigations-Fort Lauderdale company, and the U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations office.
___
© 2024 Miami Herald
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.