LAS CRUCES, N.M. — The Associated Press reports that two alleged members of a violent Mexican street gang were indicted on charges of assaulting FBI agents during an attempted train robbery last week.
The agents were beaten with bricks and rocks as they foiled the robbery Sept. 12 by a gang authorities say is known as “Siete Dos,” or Seven Two. Both agents suffered serious head injuries.
Indicted Thursday were Carlos Enrique Garcia-Castillo, who is in custody in the Dona Ana County Detention Center, and Eduardo Calderon, who is believed to have escaped back into Mexico.
Eleven others — more than half identified as gang members and all as Mexican nationals — also were indicted on charges of conspiring to assault FBI agents. All are in custody.
In a separate criminal complaint filed Thursday, five suspects still at large were charged with assaulting a federal officer with a “deadly or dangerous” weapon during the attempted robbery.
The complaint describes the gang as a “violent organized street gang responsible for drug and alien smuggling, burglarizing the trains in Sunland Park, New Mexico, and violent assaults and murders.”
A total of 19 adults and four juveniles have been charged in the case. Fifteen are in custody.
Most of the people detained were not involved in the robbery, and some were guilty only of trying to enter the United States illegally, said Hector Raul Acosta, with the Mexican Consulate in El Paso.
“They were picked up by Juarez police officers from their houses (in Mexico) and turned over to U.S. federal agents at the edge of the fence,” Acosta said. “Three stated they were in U.S. territory, but they were not involved in this criminal event.”
According to the complaint, FBI agents Samantha Mikeska and Sergio Barrio were beaten as they tried to apprehend suspects who were trying to rob a Union Pacific train loaded with electronics, fireworks, toys and canned goods.
The suspects had crossed the Mexican border through a hole in a fence and jumped on the train as it slowed, the complaint says.
As Mikeska tried to apprehend one suspect, she was dragged down into a ravine where a large group of people began throwing rocks, bricks and sticks at her, according to the complaint.
Barrio ran to help her and was hit with bricks or rocks and smashed in the head with a club that caused a skull fracture, the complaint states.
Another FBI agent, Gerald Fernandez, who was chasing a juvenile near the train, fired at one person about to throw a rock at him, the complaint states. FBI agents have said the shot diffused the situation and allowed law enforcement officials to make the arrests.
Fernandez and another agent suffered injuries in the incident, but neither was hospitalized. Both Mikeska and Barrio have been released from the hospital.
Norm Cairns, U.S. Attorneys spokesman, said those named in the criminal complaint will have a likely have a preliminary hearing next week.