Julio Cesar Rodriguez Rojas
Introduction
Julio Cesar Rodriguez Rojas, a 30-year-old man from Tucson, Arizona, was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for his role in a 2022 hostage-taking conspiracy in which six people who had crossed into the United States were abducted in the desert by armed men, held in a house with the door screwed shut, and ransomed for $16,000 . Rodriguez Rojas pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting conspiracy to hostage take, and prosecutors proved at the pleading stage that he directed the movement of the captives and armed the man who collected the ransom .
Background Information
The conspiracy came to federal attention on April 6, 2022, when Homeland Security Investigations received a tip from an individual in New York who said two of his cousins were being held captive and that their captors had demanded a $16,000 ransom for their release . The cousins had crossed into the United States without authorization as part of a group of six people who were abducted in the desert by armed men after their crossing . The captors confiscated the group’s cellphones and transported all six to a house, where they were held for multiple days in a room whose door was screwed shut each night to prevent escape .
Rodriguez Rojas’s co-conspirators, Olegario Lares-De La Rosa and Ivan Heriberto Borboa-Ruiz, both of Mexico, were previously sentenced to 18 years and 14 years in prison, respectively, for their roles in the same offense .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Convicted and sentenced. Rodriguez Rojas pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting conspiracy to hostage take and was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Investigators learned that Borboa-Ruiz made the phone calls arranging the ransom and hostage exchange, and that Rodriguez Rojas then instructed Lares-De La Rosa to bring the captives from where they were being held . On April 8, 2022, Borboa-Ruiz arrived at the money-exchange location in Tucson and met with two undercover agents, armed with a loaded 9mm pistol that Rodriguez Rojas had given him . He received and counted the $16,000 in cash twice to confirm the ransom had been paid, then called Rodriguez Rojas to say they were “good” and that the two victims could be released .
The release was directed by phone: Rodriguez Rojas told Lares-De La Rosa, who was parked nearby, to free the victims . The two cousins got out of the car and walked toward the undercover vehicle, and as they reached it Borboa-Ruiz was immediately arrested . While agents were arresting him, Lares-De La Rosa sped away, leading agents on a high-speed chase — throwing a loaded 9mm pistol out of the window and bailing out of the vehicle before fleeing through private backyards and being arrested . Rodriguez Rojas left the scene and was arrested in 2023 .
Public Reaction and Consequences
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations with assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Marana Police Department, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Serra M. Tsethlikai and Sarah Precup of the District of Arizona’s Tucson office . The sentence continues a string of punishments in the same conspiracy: with Rodriguez Rojas’s 13 years, the three sentenced defendants have received a combined 45 years in federal prison.
The case also sits within the District of Arizona’s broader docket of immigration-related federal prosecutions — the office announced it in the same weeks it was charging hundreds of people weekly for immigration-related criminal conduct along the border .
Current Status
Rodriguez Rojas was sentenced earlier in September 2026 by Senior United States District Judge Raner C. Collins to 13 years in prison, following his guilty plea to aiding and abetting conspiracy to hostage take . The case is docketed as 22-CR-00974-TUC-RCC, and the release announcing the sentence was the final disposition in it for the three charged defendants.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Rodriguez Rojas, 30, will be in his early forties when the 13-year term ends. His role in the conspiracy — directing where the captives were moved, supplying the pistol carried to the ransom exchange, and controlling by phone when they were freed — is now a matter of court record under a hostage-taking conviction. The six people his conspiracy held captive spent days locked in a room with a door screwed shut each night, and the two cousins at the center of the case were freed only after their family paid the full $16,000 ransom to undercover federal agents.
Sources
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona — “Tucson Man Sentenced to 13 Years in Prison for 2022 Hostage Taking” source