Palmview chase suspect: Gulf Cartel forced me to smuggle

ABRAM — Isaac Sanchez Gutierrez said he faced an ultimatum: Pay the Gulf Cartel $10 million or move 50 drug loads to free his kidnapped brother.
The 21-year-old U.S. citizen wanted by Palmview police made that claim to U.S. Border Patrol agents who said they found him with 451 pounds of marijuana Tuesday near Abram.
Agents arrested Sanchez in a brushy area after he allegedly abandoned a silver Ford Taurus near Abram Road and Military Highway, a criminal complaint states.
Sanchez told agents his brother, Juan Armando Sanchez, had been kidnapped by the Gulf Cartel in Reynosa two months ago. He said they threatened to torture his brother unless he cooperated.
A man known only as “Comandante 4” apparently kidnapped Juan Armando Sanchez after he purportedly stole $2 million from the Gulf Cartel, the complaint states.
Sanchez said he learned of the kidnapping after Comandante 4 paid him a visit Dec. 19 at a Palmview motel. There, Comandante 4 demanded a $4 million ransom from Sanchez’s family, he claims, and ordered Sanchez to smuggle loads to pay off the debt.