Kidnapped Huntington man home

Bryce Alderton

More than two weeks after he was first reported missing, a Huntington

Beach businessman returned home Saturday after police found him

dehydrated but unharmed in a Long Beach motel room.

Officers found 37-year-old Sohiel Daliri, who had been kidnapped weeks

before, tied to a bed, blindfolded and gagged with duct tape inside a

motel room at the Don Motel in Long Beach. With him in the room was,

Erick Velasquez, 20, of Rancho Santa Margarita, said Lt. Dan Johnson with

the Huntington Beach Police Department.

Velazquez and four others -- Huntington Beach residents Brian D.

Dumas, 28, and Brian D. Good, 27, Placentia resident Nasir Shamsi, 40,

and 18-year-old Rancho Santa Margarita resident Esau Abrajan -- were

arrested on suspicion of kidnapping for ransom, Johnson said.All five

suspects, who were arrested at different times, were taken to Huntington

Beach City Jail and booked on $250,000 bail, police said. A sixth

suspect, a juvenile, was arrested but not charged with kidnapping.

Daliri was allegedly kidnapped from his home in Orange on March 18.

His girlfriend, who police would not identify, reported him missing March

19.

The first person arrested in connection with the kidnapping was a

juvenile, who was picked up by the Lakewood Sheriffs’s Department on

suspicion of auto theft and hit-and-run just six days after Daliri was

kidnapped. The juvenile was driving Daliri’s car, police said.

Two days later, Riverside County Sheriff’s deputies arrested two of

the others driving a truck rented with Daliri’s credit card. The truck

was reported stolen after it was not returned to the rental yard on time.

Shamsi, who allegedly drove the truck, posted bail.

On Saturday, Daliri’s girlfriend contacted police after she got a call

from someone who claimed to have Daliri and was demanding a large sum of

money for his return, Johnson said.

She met with Good, police said, but Daliri was not present and no

money was exchanged. She was told that Daliri would be harmed if the

ransom was not paid, police said.

From that meeting the FBI set up surveillance on Good, who met up with

Shamsi, and the two drove a stolen car through Huntington Beach, Long

Beach and Seal Beach before stopping at the Don Hotel in Long Beach. The

two returned to an apartment in Huntington Beach and were arrested by

Huntington Beach Police. Dumas, arrived at the apartment a few minutes

later and was arrested.