BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - A Florida man was arrested in Baton Rouge Tuesday after reportedly kidnapping four children from Pensacola.
The suspect, Jose Garcia Montes, 36, was arrested at a construction site off Summa Avenue in Baton Rouge on Tuesday, January 23 after reportedly taking the four children from their mother in Escambia County on January 20.
After Montes was located at the construction site, he then led East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office officials to an address in the Gardere area where he had left the four children with a friend.
Officials with the Escambia County Sheriff's Office say the mother was in constant contact with Montes, who is the biological father of three of the four children, but at some point, Montes told her he was not bringing the children back. It was at this point the mother alerted authorities.
Sheriff's office officials were assisted in this case by the FBI in Baton Rouge, the U.S. Marshal Service, the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office, and the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS).
Montes has an extensive criminal history, including four felony charges, five misdemeanors, and one felony conviction involving a deportation. His other charges involved drugs and assault, among other crimes.
The children are all under the age of 7-years-old and are now safe and in the custody of DCFS.
Officials say there was no indication this was a human trafficking case.
Montes is charged with four counts of kidnapping. The full press conference from the Escambia County Sheriff's Office is below.
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