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Soldier arrested in Mexico formally charged

EL PASO, Texas — A soldier jailed in Mexico has been formally charged with transporting guns into the country.

Spc. Richard R. Medina Torres, 25, was charged Wednesday with weapons importation and possession of ammunition reserved for the military, Angel Torres, a spokesman for the Mexican Attorney General told the El Paso Times for Thursday’s edition.

A judge has 72 hours to decide if Medina Torres, a Fort Hood soldier, should be freed or sentenced to prison. He has been transferred from the federal prosecutor’s office to the nearby Cereso prison, officials said.

Medina Torres said Tuesday that the case was a misunderstanding.

After driving all night from Fort Hood, he intended to park his 1999 Honda Prelude on the U.S. side of the border in El Paso and then walk over for breakfast in Ciudad Juarez, a sprawling and violence-plagued city across the Rio Grande.

But after misunderstanding directions from a gas station attendant, Medina Torres said, he took the wrong Interstate 10 exit.

“It was just an accident. I didn’t mean to drive over here,” a tearful Medina Torres said. “When I saw where I was at, I started asking people at the front gate, ‘Where can I turn around at?”’

The soldier, who speaks no Spanish, said he tried to make his way back to the U.S. but was stopped by federal agents. When the agents asked if he had any weapons in the car, Medina Torres said he immediately pointed them to an AR-15 assault rifle and a .45-caliber handgun, both personal weapons he bought legally a few years ago. He also had 171 bullets and three knives.

Medina Torres said he was en route to his mother’s house in Fresno, Calif., and that he was planning to store his car and all his belongings there while he served a one-year tour in Honduras.

Ciudad Juarez has been plagued with violence for several months as dueling drug cartels vie for control of the border city. Federal agents and the military have been stationed there in an effort to quell the violence.