Evergreen Reporter

Deivy Jose Rodriguez Delgado, a 30-year-old Venezuelan national, was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The sentence follows his conviction for armed hostage takings of three U.S. citizens in the Dominican Republic in 2022. This announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and FBI Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri from the Miami Field Office.

A jury found Delgado guilty on December 11, 2023, after a trial lasting nearly two weeks. He was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit hostage-taking and three counts of hostage-taking. Chief Judge James E. Boasberg also ordered five years of supervised release following his prison term, after which Delgado will face deportation proceedings.

Evidence presented by the government revealed that Delgado, also known as "Sebastian," kidnapped three men between July 5 and July 30, 2022, under the guise of arranging friendly dates online. After picking up each victim in his car, he would stop to let an accomplice into the backseat before holding them at knifepoint and demanding ransom payments via online banking accounts like CashApp.

Victims were forced to call friends and family to request money for their release while being held captive for up to an hour until ransom payments were believed to have been received by Delgado's group. They were also robbed before being released on Dominican Republic streets.

Dominican authorities initiated an investigation in August 2022 after receiving reports from multiple victims. They traced a vehicle used in one incident back to Delgado and arrested him on September 14, 2022. Serrated knives similar to those used during the hostage situations were found during a search of this vehicle.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Miami Field Office with assistance from various international law enforcement bodies including DECROI from the Dominican Republic and prosecuted by Assistant U.S Attorneys John Korba and Jolie Zimmerman with paralegal support from Michael Watts.