Borderland Beat posted by Pepe
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A Brownsville resident is dead after a group of armed men kidnapped him, along with another victim in Nuevo Progreso, Tamaulipas.
Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio said Eric Candanosa and Carlos Vela Moreno were driving Wednesday evening along a highway in Tamaulipas. The men were transporting two vehicles into Matamoros on an expressway between Matamoros and Progreso when Candanosa’s vehicle overheated, causing him to pull over. Both men parked their vehicles on the side of the road.
At this time, a group of six or seven armed men in two vehicles approached the pair and kidnapped both the Brownsville residents.
According to the Sheriff’s Department, one of the armed men said, “This is the guy,” referring to 38-year-old Candanosa.
Moreno explained that the armed group that took them to a secluded wooded area and beat the men, with Candanosa receiving a far more severe beating. He was beaten by a 2X4 until he was unconscious.
According to the Sheriff, the two men were released by their captors, the same day in Nuevo Progreso, being abandoned in an unpopulated area. Moreno took Candanosa to a hospital in the town of Rio Bravo, where he requested that they be transferred to a hospital on the American side.
Since both men are United States citizens a Mexican ambulance transferred the men to the Los Indios Bridge to meet with paramedics from the U.S.
At 8:30 Wednesday, they arrived in an ambulance at Indios bridge border crossing, with the intention of being treated at a hospital in Harlingen Texas. But at the bridge, it was determined Candanosa had no vital signs.
The Cameron County Sheriff’s Office was called to the bridge around 8:30 p.m. in reference to the assault.
Sheriff Lucio confirmed that Candanosa was dead by the time he arrived at the bridge.
Moreno told the sheriff’s department that he did not know why the group of armed men kidnapped them.
An autopsy, ordered by Judge Eloy Cano, will be performed Thursday.
Sources that contributed to the writing of this post: Brownsville Herald, El Norte, Lasillarota