A Gwinnett magistrate judge granted a $30,000 bond Wednesday for a man accused of false imprisonment in a drug-related kidnapping that went awry.

But the legal problems for 24-year-old Jose Ramirez-Perez, who has been in jail in Gwinnett, don't stop at Gwinnett's border. Sandy Springs police have filed kidnapping charges against him in Fulton County. That's where the strange saga began when six men abducted a suspected drug dealer from his apartment on July 1.

Federal immigration officials also have placed a hold on Ramirez-Perez, who is an illegal immigrant from Mexico, pending possible deportation, authorities said.

Ramirez-Perez told police he had nothing to do with the kidnapping. He said he was hired to pick up the [ransom] money, Detective J. Richter of the Gwinnett County Police Department testified Wednesday in a Magistrate Court hearing.

Lt. Steve Rose, spokesman for the Sandy Springs Police Department, said investigators are still trying to identify the other suspects involved in the kidnapping.

"To the best of my knowledge, as of today, we don't have ideas who those suspects are," Rose said when reached by phone on Wednesday.

The kidnappers allegedly abducted Juan David Arce-Flores, 34, and transported him from Sandy Springs to a one-story house in Lawrenceville. They held him there for six days "bound, gagged and blindfolded" while trying to extract $2 million in ransom money from his family, said Gwinnett Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney David Fife.

The scheme went south on July 7, when Gwinnett police shot one of the suspects at a pre-arranged ransom drop-off spot at a Waffle House in Lawrenceville. When officers approached a suspicious vehicle in the parking lot, the driver, 23-year-old Richard Garcia of Doraville, allegedly "made aggressive movement toward his weapon," said Gwinnett police spokeswoman Cpl. Illana Spellman. The officers opened fire, killing him.

Ramirez-Perez, a passenger in the car, was arrested at the scene. He later took officers to the home where Arce-Flores' had been held captive, Richter said.

By then, Arce-Flores had escaped, and police found him walking along U.S. 29 in Lawrenceville a few hours after the shooting. He was arrested for giving the officer a fake name, police said.