A convicted methamphetamine trafficker who was scheduled to stand trial next month on more drug trafficking charges has admitted that he was also a hired henchman responsible for the 2017 abduction of a 72-year-old Honolulu businessman.

Jonah Ortiz pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Wednesday to kidnapping and conspiring to traffic methamphetamine in a deal with the government. He was not previously charged with kidnapping.

A federal grand jury indicted Ortiz, 40, and co- defendant Wayne Miller in August last year on drugs and firearms charges.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Nammar told U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry M. Kurren that Ortiz and Miller lured the businessman, whose initials are S.L., to a parking lot near Kewalo Basin Harbor Oct. 17, 2017, by calling him on a prepaid cellular telephone. When S.L. arrived, they put a bag over his head, handcuffed him and put him in their car, a Ford Crown Victoria.

Ortiz told Kurren, “We took (S.L.) by force, we drove him around a little while and dropped him off.”

Nammar said Ortiz and Miller drove S.L. around for several hours during which they assaulted S.L and demanded money from him. He said Miller was armed with a handgun.

The kidnapping charge says Ortiz abducted S.L. for money. The government is not saying who paid Ortiz.

The drugs and firearms charges against Ortiz and Miller accuse them of conspiring to distribute methamphetamine, heroin and oxycodone; with possessing the drugs; and possessing them with intent to distribute. The indictment also charges Ortiz and Miller with possessing firearms as convicted felons and possessing a firearm to traffic drugs. Miller is still scheduled to stand trial next month.

Ortiz is facing a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison at sentencing in January and a prison term of at least 10 years and up to life for the drug conspiracy.

In exchange for Ortiz’s guilty pleas, the government promised to drop all of the other charges against him and to withdraw its sentencing enhancement claims. Ortiz agreed to cooperate with the government, including testifying against Miller and possibly others.

Ortiz was arrested in 2002 for methamphetamine trafficking and, after pleading guilty, was sentenced in 2004 to 14 years in federal prison. The government had Ortiz’s sentenced reduced in 2005 by two years for his post- conviction cooperation. Ortiz was under court-supervised release when he committed the drug trafficking conspiracy and kidnapping.