A fourth person has been charged in connection with a Mexican drug cartel kidnapping, in which authorities say a man was held and assaulted in a St. Paul building.

A SWAT team found the 26-year-old man on Jan. 7, based on information that he was in a Payne Avenue building across from the police department’s Eastern District parking lot.

He had a handcuff still attached to his right wrist, his hand was swollen and his bottom teeth were loose from being assaulted. He was shoeless, walked with difficulty and was in pain. He was taken to a hospital.

Soon after, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged Erling Soren Holdahl, 48, of White Bear Lake, along with Richar Sanchez Mujica, 30, and Kendra Sue Johnson, 39, both of Minneapolis, with aiding and abetting kidnapping. On Wednesday, prosecutors charged Timothy Duane Ripley, 45, with the same offenses.

‘Help take care of’ drug debt

The case came to the attention of law enforcement when a person working with a Mexican drug trafficking organization received information from a contact in Mexico that someone had killed a person who owed money. The person then learned the man hadn’t been killed yet, but they were asked to help torture and kill him.

The contact in Mexico told the person to meet Sanchez Mujica, and bring chains and weights “to help take care of it,” according to the criminal complaints. The person contacted law enforcement the morning of Jan. 7 and informed them what was happening.

A confidential source had told law enforcement in December that Sanchez Mujica was involved in drug trafficking, and officers obtained a search warrant to track where he was through his cellphone location, the complaints said.

Law enforcement saw Sanchez Mujica get into a minivan the morning of Jan. 7 and they followed him to Minneapolis, where a man got in. The man was identified as Ripley, the complaint against him said.

Officers pulled the minivan over in the Phalen Boulevard area in St. Paul and arrested Sanchez Mujica on warrants. Ripley’s role at the time was unclear, the complaint said, and police arrested him on suspicion of drug possession.

Assaulted in building

The man who’d been held in the building told police he has a pending drug case in Hennepin County and a friend told him he knew a lawyer who could help him. He gave him the address of a Payne Avenue building. He arrived the evening of Jan. 6, and a woman greeted him at the door and told him to go down the hallway for the person waiting for him.

He walked down the hall and found a man pointing a rifle or shotgun at him. Another man hit him in the head with a heavy object from behind. A third man joined the others and repeatedly hit and kicked him, while he was unable to defend himself. He said the men wore masks during the assault. They took him to the basement, and handcuffed and tied him to a post.

Ripley matches the description of the second man the victim described, the complaint said.

When police asked Ripley how he ended up in a minivan with Sanchez Mujica, he said Sanchez Mujica is a mechanic and he picked him up at a shop in St. Paul. Sanchez Mujica then dropped Ripley off in Minneapolis. Ripley said he was home the evening of Jan. 6.

Ripley received a message at 10:49 p.m. on Jan. 6 from Sanchez Mujica that said, “Tomorrow I pay you bro for sure.” Sanchez Mujica texted Ripley at 5:49 a.m. Jan. 7 with the address on Payne Avenue where the 26-year-old man was later found by the SWAT team.

New complaint: Police suspected man acted as ‘muscle’

Police arrested Ripley on Monday. He told an investigator he had four years of military service and had been dishonorably discharged, the complaint said. When police asked Ripley about the text regarding money, he said that referred to Ripley picking up Sanchez Mujica in the morning.

“When told the investigator believed Ripley was just acting as muscle” at the Payne Avenue building, Ripley replied, “OK,” the complaint said. Soon after, he asked if he should have a lawyer and police ended the interview.

Officers carried out a search warrant at a Maple Grove address that Ripley was moving into. They found an AR-style rifle matching what the 26-year-old described as being used in the incident.

Attorneys for Ripley, Sanchez Mujica and Holdahl couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Thursday. An attorney for Johnson said she couldn’t comment.

At the time of their arrests, Johnson told police she wasn’t part of anything that led to the man being in the basement. Holdahl said he wasn’t there when men brought the 26-year-old to his building.

Sanchez Mujica told police “he didn’t know who grabbed the man in the basement — the man was already chained up” when he arrived, according to the complaints. He said he was only there to collect money.