KC man sentenced in kidnapping-for-hire plot, planned torture to collect drug debt
Federal prosecutors announced a Mexican national was sentenced to 10 years in prison for orchestrating a kidnapping-for-hire plot to settle a drug debt.
According to court documents, Carlos Niebla-Machado, 51, pleaded guilty to attempted kidnapping after investigators say he hired an undercover Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent to abduct and torture someone who owed him a large sum of money.
Niebla-Machado was illegally residing in Kansas City at the time of the alleged plot, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas.
KBI alerted to drug trafficking
Confidential sources told the KBI in May 2024 that Nibla-Machado was allegedly trafficking methamphetamine and fentanyl from California into the Kansas City area.
Nibla-Machado met with an undercover KBI agent in June 2024, telling the agent that he wanted a person who owed him hundreds of thousands of dollars to be kidnapped, tortured and coerced to sign over property, according to court records.
Niebla-Machado provided the agent with the person’s full name, age, home address, photographs, and background information. Niebla-Machado allegedly said he wanted the person’s fingers cut off, and a torch used on their face.
The agent asked Niebla-Machado if he wanted to be involved in torturing the person. The defendant said he was “too old for that,” according to court records, but that he wanted to visit the rural Kansas location where they would be held.
Niebla-Machado gave the agent a firearm and a Dodge Ram pickup truck as a down payment for the kidnapping, according to court records.
Kidnapping plot foiled
Investigators contacted the person and disclosed the kidnapping-for-hire plot. They agreed to cooperate in the undercover investigation.
In July 2024, the agent told Niebla-Machado that the person was taken and being held on a property in Kansas. The agent picked up Niebla-Machado in Missouri and drove him to the agreed upon location. Once they arrived, KBI agents arrested Niebla-Machado.
In a statement following Niebla-Machado’s sentencing, U.S. Attorney Ryan A. Kriegshauser said he is fortunate investigators put a stop to the kidnapping plot.
“After listening to the gruesome details of the torment Niebla-Machado planned for the kidnapping victim, it’s apparent that had he been speaking with a willing violent criminal rather than an undercover agent, this case would have likely ended in tragedy,” Kriegshauser said.
