Earlier this week, Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos was kidnapped in his native Venezuela where he had returned to play baseball this winter but after an intense investigation into the abduction, Venezuelan police commandos swooped in to rescue him in a remote mountainous area.

The police then arrested three alleged abductors and a helicopter picked up Ramos and flew him out of the area to safety.

The armed abductors took Ramos from his home at gunpoint 50 hours prior to his rescue and sped away in an SUV. Since that time, they never had contact with authorities until they were cuffed and arrested.

Ramos, a 24 year catcher originally from Carabobo, Venezuela, was coming off of his first season as a starter and is one of the building blocks to help make the Washington Nationals relevant in the baseball world for the first time.

Kidnapping has been a big problem in Venezuela in recent years and Luis Cedeno, a Venezuelan security expert still believes that Ramos was kidnapped by a group with purely economic means. He also stated that the group like this one normally kidnaps one or two victims a year but uses their time to thoroughly plan out their crimes.

Venezuelan authorities first recovered the car used in the kidnapping then the investigation later led to the mountainous region where Ramos was found and rescued.

According to one MLB official, this is the first time a Major League Baseball player has been kidnapped.

There have been cases of MLB players relatives getting kidnapped in Venezuela in recent years. Former pitcher Victor Zambrano’s mother and cousin were kidnapped and while authorities rescued the mother his cousin was killed.

Catcher Yorvit Torrealba’s son and brother in law were both kidnapped in 2009 and released a day later.

In another case not related to MLB, a banker was kidnapped and held for nearly a year before being released after ransom money was paid.

The Venezuelan League did not cancel games despite the kidnapping. At games on Thursday a moment of silence was held for Ramos and a Green W was embroidered onto jerseys as a tribute to Ramos.

Used with permission of the author.

Brett is the editor and a contributor for www.BravesFTW.com. He has covered MLB and the Braves for numerous websites and is a regular contributor to Sports Climax. Follow Brett on Twitter.

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