7 Held Hostage in $80K Extortion Plot, Police Say

Three men were arrested Monday after allegedly holding seven people hostage for $80,000 ransom, according to reports on Action News and PhillyBurbs.

Bristol Township Police arrested Orlando McNeil, 38, Daesean Smith, 21 and Dennis Redding, 18, for allegedly holding four adults and three children hostage, according to Action News.

Police said the men planned to lure a man to a nearby apartment complex to rob him, but the man refused to leave his apartment, PhillyBurbs reported. The victim recently received a cash life insurance award after his mother died, according to Action News.

Police said McNeil waited outside in a black SUV while Smith and Redding, who were armed, allegedly broke into the victim's Levittown Trace Apartment on Sunday night, according to PhillyBurbs. The two men then allegedly held the seven people hostage overnight, the article said.

Then  at 10 a.m. on Monday, police said the men forced one of the victims to go to a Bristol Borough PNC Bank and withdraw $80,000, Action News reported. While at the bank, the victim told the teller that his friends and family were being held hostage, the article said. The teller gave the victim $1,500 and alerted the police.

Bristol Township police officers arrived at Levittown Trace and the three individuals were arrested.

Smith and Redding were arraigned on Monday afternoon before Bristol District Judge Frank Peranteau on counts of kidnapping, robbery and burglary, according to information on Bucks County's Inmate Lookup Database.

McNeil was arraigned on Monday night before Bristol Township District Judge Joanne Kline, and faces identical charges as well as simple assault and possessing an instrument of crime, according to PhillyBurbs.

The three men were sent to Bucks County prison in lieu of 10 percent of $1 million bail.

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