The FBI acknowledged on its website that 25-year-old Armando Fernández Torres III, a US Marine and veteran of the U.S. war in Iraq, was kidnapped along with his father Armando Torres II and his uncle Salvador Torres, when the three drove across the Texas border into Tamaulipas on May 14. The FBI announced today that they are looking for any information that could help lead them to the kidnappers. Investigators believe armed intruders took the three men hostage shortly after they arrived at a family ranch near Los Indios, Mexico. None of the three have been heard from since.
Armando Torres' sister Cristina Torres, 24, who lives in Virginia, told Texas newspaper The Monitor that she got a call from a female cousin who was at the ranch when the kidnapping occurred.
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"She saw a white truck with people in it and they just went in the house and got my brother and my dad and my uncle and just put them in the truck and took off," Cristina Torres said. "They took a lot of their belongings in the house and they took the cars, as well."
Cristina Torres added that her family believes the kidnappers were motivated by a dispute over land, saying members of a drug cartel had had their eye on the property because of its proximity to the border. Her family refused to give it up to them.
"You never expect anything like this to happen," she said. "[Armando] never went to Mexico, because when he was active in the Marines he wasn't allowed to go. He hadn't been in a long time and I don't know what set him off to go visit my dad. ... We just want to see them again."
Cartels operating in areas where they exercise heavy influence often station lookouts near the entrances of towns and on isolated mountains, which could explain the speed with which the kidnappers reached the ranch after the Torres men's arrival.
In addition to his time in Iraq, Armando Torres had also been served out a deployment to Africa. He and his sister Cristina grew up in San Benito, Texas, and at the time of his kidnapping was living in Hargill. He has a 4-year-old and a 3-year-old boy.
A State Department official confirmed with ABC News that the U.S. Consulate General in Matamoros is collaborating with Mexican authorities on the case, but would not give further details.
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