Grandparents are kidnapped, ransomed for cocaine or $3.5M

(AP) — Authorities say a couple in their 70s were kidnapped from their home in northern New York, taken into Canada and held for two nights by drug traffickers intent on recovering 50 kilograms of cocaine from their grandson.

Four men from Quebec and one from Plattsburgh, New York, face charges in the abduction of the couple from Moira. Court papers describe a nighttime abduction and ransom calls to the couple’s son.

Investigators traced cellphones used by the kidnappers to find the couple in Quebec on Sept. 29.

The couple’s grandson had been charged with transporting cocaine for a drug organization a week before the kidnapping.