Authorities in the Mexican coastal state of Michoacán have arrested a man and a woman wanted in Texas on suspicion of kidnapping three migrants.
This week, Mexican authorities, along with the Michoacán Attorney General’s Office (FGE), tracked Santiago Hernandez Jr. and Laurie Lynn Flowers to the city of Huetamo, Michoacán, where they were arrested on preliminary warrants of arrest for the purpose of extradition. The FBI is searching for two people from Brookshire, Texas, on suspicion of kidnapping. The two are the last remaining fugitives on the run from a group of more than a dozen suspects involved in a violent kidnapping and various gunfights in Texas.
#breaking news Laurie Lynn Flowers and Santiago Hernandez Jr. were just captured. #FBI Houston agency in Michoacán, Mexico.
They were wanted on federal charges for their alleged participation in the violent kidnapping of three people in Brookshire, Texas, on March 18, 2023. #HouNews pic.twitter.com/hNUqDPeZdw
— FBI Houston (@FBIHouston) February 27, 2024
According to the FBI, on March 18, 2023, Hernandez, Flowers, and several others participated in a violent ransom kidnapping plot. A group of more than 11 kidnappers used firearms to intercept a vehicle carrying six migrants heading north from the Texas border city of Eagle Pass. The gunmen fired several shots in an attempt to stop the vehicle. Some migrants were injured in the attack. The gunmen allegedly kidnapped three migrants and left the rest behind. The attackers reportedly took the victim to a Houston-area hotel and tortured him while videotaping the attack in an attempt to coerce his loved ones into sending money.
Authorities had previously arrested eight other gunmen in August 2023. Another gunman died during the initial rescue of migrants by authorities. The FBI did not charge the other two suspects because they were juveniles. State authorities charged them at the time.
Editor’s note: Breitbart Texas is recruiting citizen journalists willing to risk their lives to expose cartels that silence their communities in the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo Leon. visited etc. Breitbart Texas Cartel Chronicles Published in both English and original Spanish. This article was written by José Luis Lara, a former member who helped start the self-defense movement in Michoacán.
