Drug ripoff allegedly set off kidnapping, $2,000 ransom demand

A daylong ordeal in which an El Paso County man was abducted, beaten and held for ransom began when he set up a bogus drug deal in which a buyer was conned into paying $2,000 for biscuit mix, authorities allege.

Matthew Ryan Shaver, 20, was freed by law enforcement officers on Sunday evening, some 15 hours after his four captors began forcing Shaver to call his parents and ask for money in exchange for his safe release.

His parents alerted the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, and a detective tracked cellular phone signals to an apartment where Shaver was being held in the 600 block of Huron Road.

The FBI and Colorado Springs police assisted in the rescue.

According to court documents released Wednesday, one of the captors, 20-year-old Justin Inacio, was angry because Shaver put him in touch with two men who sold him "three zippers" of cocaine that turned out to be a flour mix similar to Bisquick.

After Inacio discovered the deception, the court documents said, Shaver was dragged into a street in the 1900 block of Mineola Court, beaten, blindfolded, stuffed into a car and driven to the home on Huron Road.

Shaver had minor injuries.

Inacio was arrested with Robert K. Gocha IV, 20, Jamey A. Lobato, 23, and Mark B. Montoya, 20. They are being held in El Paso County jail on suspicion of first-degree kidnapping, criminal aggravated extortion, menacing and assault.