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Editor's note: This is one of the more unusual posts which has appeared on Submini-L over the years. Definitely one of this reader's favorites. Comes complete with subminiature content! Thanks Steve!

Date sent: Sat, 22 Aug 1998 11:39:04 -0400
Send reply to: The Subminiature Photography Mailing List
<SUBMINI-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM>
From: Steve Uhrig <Steve@S...>
Subject: After action report - kidnapping
To: SUBMINI-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM

Well, I'm back from one of the most intense operations in my career. Will
take some time to decompress.

Last week a high level government official was kidnapped in Mexico.
The kidnapper was a long term bad guy wanted by the authorities for
many years. This was his fifteenth kidnapping.

I was hired by the Mexican government on a full panic basis to build and
install a beacon (tracking) transmitter in the ransom money, and to
provide and operate a direction finding system to let us follow the ransom
money after the handoff.

So, hours after receiving the call, my black bag and I am on a very
expensive plane ride to Mexico City.

Working 20 hours a day installing not only my equipment but encrypted
communications and the repeater in a small plane, setting up antennas for
everything, doing last minute repackaging, training operators on the
various technologies, etc. I ended up being basically the overall
coordinator and troubleshooter for the electronic surveillance and
communications end of the operation.

The M.O. with the kidnapper was to send in the victim's ears to the
authorities along with the instructions for swapping the money for
the victim. We kept waiting for ears. Every time one of us would
leave for a minute and come back, we'd just arch our eyebrows and
someone would say, "no ears yet".

I am bugging the ransom money. Ever seen $10 million American in
cash, no bills larger than a fifty? A crew of people are working in
shifts photocopying all the bills for the serial numbers and marking them
with ultraviolet.

We are doing dry runs flying the aircraft with a tracking system
operator hanging out the open door holding a directional antenna,
running vehicles around the city equipped with our various beacon
transmitters, and testing the range of our scrambled communications. I am
trying to resolve interference problems between various electronic systems
in the aircraft. Fortunately they provided me with some excellent test
equipment, one piece coincidentally the identical model I have in my lab,
making me look like a wizard for knowing how to operate it without
assistance. We are waiting for ears.

In the meantime the clock is ticking because I have to be back in
Maryland by Thursday afternoon for surgery Friday. The government
tells me they will allow me to leave when we recover the victim
either alive or dead.

We're on 20 minute standby, ready to power up all our crap and hit
the streets. I am living on pizza and apples, drinking only bottled
water in defiance of Montezuma. Sleeping fully dressed except for my
boots. Standing by to stand by. Checking and rechecking equipment. Running
test counts on all comm channels. Making last minute changes to the
equipment as brilliant ideas bubble up from beneath the haze. Waiting for
ears.

We find out Monday late evening that the government was not being
allowed to talk to the victim, which is suspicious. Intelligence
reveals the victim died subsequent to being wounded in an exchange of
gunfire when he was taken. Knowing the safety of the victim no longer is
an issue, commandos take down the bad guy's headquarters and capture him
with acceptable casualties on both sides. In my opinion no friendly
casualties are acceptable, but I come from a different culture. Many times
however I feel that infinite adversarial casualties are acceptable if not
actually preferred.

So we never deploy, victim is dead, bad guy is in custody, we do not give
up the ransom money, and I do not have the opportunity to show off my
equipment or my operational skills nor be a hero. They saw my crap perform
in the dry runs though, and me start with earth, air, water and fire and
put a surveillance together. No argument about my fee; they pay for all my
equipment, all my expenses and an extremely excellent rate for 5 days of
my time.

Photography was absolutely verboten, so of course I snuck a number of
clandestine shots with my Minox and a few with my digital camera. I had
learned to cock and shoot my Minox EC with one hand in my pocket. Was
practicing changing the film cassettes with one hand inside my pocket, but
have a lot further to go on that angle.

Continental is a wonderful airline, super food, friendly and helpful even
when I had lost my return ticket somewhere out in the field.

Request prayers for comfort for the victim's family. Although we were not
responsible, we feel for them having been so intimate in the efforts to
recover him.

So I am back from an interesting and high pressure operation, and now my
wife says I need to mow the lawn.

Steve


*******************************************************************
Steve Uhrig, SWS Security, Maryland (USA)
Mfrs of electronic surveillance equip
mailto:Steve@s... website http://www.swssec.com
tel +1+410-879-4035, fax +1+410-836-1190
"In God we trust, all others we monitor"
*******************************************************************

 

 
The contents of this archive, have been taken from the running conversations of Submini-L participants, from the years 1996 to the present. Please keep in mind, that they are presented largely unedited. Because these posts often represent the opinion of the speaker, the accuracy of the posts cannot be guaranteed.
Last Updated May 6, 2003