Fresno boys at center of international kidnap case

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Three boys from Fresno are now at the center of an international investigation into possible kidnapping and human trafficking. Investigators on both sides of the border have been trying to find the boys' family.

Romeo and Damian Trevino weren't even school aged when their great-grandmother last took their pictures in 2006.

The boys have grown a lot since then, and Eva Trevino hadn't seen them in a year until Action News showed her images of them, still dressed alike, but in the custody of Mexican police.

"I know they must be going through some horrible moments," Trevino said. "Worried and scared for them that they might really be hurt because we didn't know anything about it."

Now nine and ten years old, the boys and their half-brother Michael tell police they've lived with a grandmother in the Guadalajara area for seven months. But the boys said they were taken from that home by strangers, then dumped at another location. Police are now trying to determine what happened to them, and where they belong.

"The family's mostly been worried about them and trying to find some kind of paperwork so we can prove they belong over here," Trevino said.

Romeo and Damian's parents lost custody of all three boys around the time this picture was taken. Another family adopted them and changed their last names, but the adoptive mother had them visit the Trevino family fairly often. They can't track her down now, though.

Trevino says the birth parents never stopped loving the boys. They've been trying to work with the Mexican consulate to get the kids back in the United States, but without parental rights, it's been difficult. They're just hoping the boys aren't suffering too much and know they have support back home in Fresno.

"We love them," Trevino said. "We haven't forgotten them and we just want them to come home."

The international implications, though, could keep that homecoming from happening for several days.

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mexico, kidnapping, fresno, fresno county, local, corin hoggard

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