Resident accused in ransom scheme

A Costa Mesa man and two others shot and stunned a Van Nuys man before blindfolding him and whisking him away in a van to hold him for ransom, federal prosecutors said Friday.

Vagan Adzhemyan, 41, of Costa Mesa, Suren Garibyan, 32, of North Hollywood and Galvin Shaun Gibson, 30, of Mira Loma could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted of federal conspiracy and kidnapping charges listed in a grand jury indictment released Thursday.

Prosecutors said Adzhemyan and his cohorts kidnapped the man July 29 after shooting him in the chest and using a Taser gun to overpower him in his apartment complex parking garage. The attackers ambushed him and his friend, whom they beat severely until he was able to escape, according to the indictment. The men gave the victim’s family five days to pay $1 million for his release, authorities said.

Police found a gun, bullet cartridges and fresh blood at the scene of the alleged kidnapping, authorities said.

“The allegations set forth speak for themselves for the callousness of the kidnappers,” said prosecutor Brian R. Michael of the U.S. Attorney’s Violent and Organized Crime Section.

Adzhemyan and his accomplices forced their hostage to call friends and family in Los Angeles and Russia, demanding the cash, and gave them until Aug. 4 to pay up, prosecutors said. The man’s family in Russia gave the phone number, which appeared on their caller ID, to Los Angeles police. That number was used with corroborating information to locate the culprits, according to the indictment.

The kidnappers moved the payment deadline to Aug. 3. Hours before it arrived, a Los Angeles Police Department SWAT team raided a home in Mira Loma and found Gibson and the hostage, who was critically injured from the untreated gunshot to his torso. The bullet pierced the victim’s abdomen and bowels. He remains in critical condition, prosecutors said. Gibson was alone when the SWAT team entered, but officers did find three pit bulls guarding the hostage, prosecutors said.

“Not seeking medical treatment [for the victim] shows significant indifference to human life,” Michael said.

Gibson also had a marijuana-growing operation inside the home, authorities said.

Adzhemyan and Garibyan were arrested in a Costa Mesa supermarket parking lot earlier that day after police saw a disguised Adzhemyan using an ATM inside, prosecutors said. Police also found 40 cell phones and a fake Armenian passport for Adzhemyan in the car, court documents show.

The three are scheduled to be arraigned in federal court in Santa Ana on Aug. 24.