Two men were arrested last week in connection with the kidnapping and assault of an off-duty U.S. Border Patrol agent from El Paso, TX.
The arrests come after an FBI-led investigation that involved 125 federal agents and other law enforcement officers.
The agent, who court records identify as 30-year-old Lorenzo Hernandez, was found the night of June 9 on the side of a road in Doña Ana County, NM, with severe injuries to his head, hands, and chest.
The FBI said Hernandez was kidnapped at his mother’s tamale stand and forced to drive 46 miles to a semirural area about 100 yards from the Rio Grande west of the Las Cruces area.
Around 11:40 p.m. that night, a sheriff’s deputy reported finding a badly injured man who was later identified as Hernandez.
Agent Hernandez told deputies that the two men armed with a gun and a machete kidnapped him after he agreed to give them a ride.
Detectives said Hernandez was struck repeatedly with the machete.
The gun was later discovered to be a pellet gun, the Las Cruces Sun-News reports.
Court documents revealed that two of Hernandez’s fingers on his right hand were partially amputated during the incident. He also had fractures on his hands and multiple lacerations on his upper torso, in addition to a possible brain hemorrhage. And he had to undergo surgery to repair torn tendons and the partially amputated fingers, according to the court documents.
