An arrest report sheds light on how authorities in West Texas rescued a kidnapped man, believed to be caught in the middle of a “movie-like” criminal plot.

Uriel Herrera Contreras, 40, and Jose Antonio Herrera, 44, were arrested and charged with aggravated kidnapping after a multi-agency operation led to the rescue of a 62-year-old businessman who had been held for nine days.

According to the arrest report, it all started on the evening of Dec. 9 when deputies with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call of a possible kidnapping.

Deputies met with the victim’s wife, who they said appeared distressed and hysterical. She explained to deputies that two men had rung the doorbell earlier in the evening, reportedly telling the victim and his wife that they had “gifts.” She told them that when they opened the door, the two men — who were covered head to toe in black and wore latex gloves — rushed in and zip-tied them at gunpoint. She then told deputies that one of the men injected her with something, which she explained was meant to knock her out. She said they left a tape recorder in the master bedroom, cut her loose telling her to call the victim’s brother, and disappeared with her husband, taking the victim’s pickup truck.

At this point, according to the arrest report, detectives with the El Paso County Major Crimes Unit took over the case.

While working the case, detectives learned that the victim had recently sold his business for $2 or $3 million; however, the detectives were not sure how many people knew of the sale.

The detectives then listened to the recording the kidnappers left in the bedroom. The report states the recording was a ransom note. The recorded voice spoke in Spanish, but investigators translated it to English. The kidnappers demanded $600,000 for the victim’s release, threatening harm if law enforcement was contacted, and provided specific instructions for making the payment without drawing attention.

According to the arrest report, detectives then found surveillance video showing the outside of the victim’s home moments before the two kidnappers rang the doorbell. The video reportedly shows a silver four-door car dropping off the two kidnappers outside the victim’s residence at around 7:42 p.m. before driving away four minutes later. The video then shows the two kidnappers making their getaway with the victim, stealing his pickup truck.

Detectives requested help from the FBI and Texas Rangers and managed to use emergency GPS tracking information from Ford Motor Co. to track the whereabouts of the victim’s stolen red pickup truck.

The detectives recovered the stolen truck at a truck stop near Interstate 10 in Horizon City. At the truck, detectives reported finding cut zip-ties, a towel, and a pair of latex gloves turned inside out, all items that seemed to have been abandoned by the kidnappers as they continued with their getaway.

According to the arrest report, the victim’s family didn’t hear from the kidnappers until a week later when, on the morning of Dec. 16, the victim’s wife received a text message from the kidnappers.

The message, which was sent through WhatsApp, instructed the victim’s family to go to mile marker 42 on I-10 to retrieve an item hidden under a rock directly next to the mile marker post. Authorities said the victim’s brother followed the text message instructions, finding a black envelope and a plastic bag. Inside the bag were two new recordings. The family and the detectives listened to them.

According to the report, the recorded voice — which echoed as if the recording had been made in an empty room — told the family that the victim would be released near a port of entry with money and a cellphone once they received the ransom money. The voice then threatened the victim’s loved ones, saying that if they deviated from the kidnappers’ plan, they would kill the victim.

Four hours later, the victim’s family received a second WhatsApp message from the kidnappers. This time it detailed the location where the family was supposed to drop off the ransom money: I-10 mile marker 41.

According to the arrest report, as negotiations continued between the family and the kidnappers, authorities used aerial surveillance to observe the area around I-10 mile marker 41, discovering a suspect in an ATV watching the decided drop-off spot from afar. For hours, investigators kept a close watch on the suspect, who didn’t move from his spot.

Eventually, the negotiations between the kidnappers and the family were cut short for the night, with the kidnappers reportedly deciding to contact the family again in the next few days. It was at this point that the suspect climbed onto the ATV and rode through the dark desert with the ATV’s headlights off.

According to the report, because of how dark it was and because the ATV was riding blind, the suspect reportedly crashed and got the ATV stuck in the sand repeatedly and even at one point ran out of gas. Investigators followed the suspect from afar.

Pushing the ATV, the suspect eventually led investigators to a rural property on the 300 block of Brown Road in Socorro. Investigators then researched the property, discovering that it was owned by one of the suspects: Jose Herrera.

The report describes that authorities continued to observe the property through aerial surveillance. Not much happened until around 10 p.m., when they spotted an SUV pull out of the Brown property and drive through 11 miles of back roads, unwillingly leading investigators to a second rural property, this one on the 600 block of Onate Drive in Fabens.

After further investigation, detectives discovered that this other property on Onate Drive belonged to the second kidnapping suspect: Uriel Herrera.

According to the arrest report, at this point, investigators learned that both Jose and Uriel somehow had ties to the victim’s brother. The report fails to elaborate more on this connection.

On Dec. 18, investigators keeping tabs on the properties followed a red pickup truck from the Onate property to a local AutoZone, where they watched the man driving the truck dump a trash bag in a bin.

After the truck drove away, investigators dug through the trash and found several empty water bottles, fresh banana peels, more water bottles filled with what looked like urine, and empty cans of Skoal apple-flavored tobacco, which investigators knew the victim used.

At around 9 p.m. on Dec. 18, authorities decided to crack down on both properties and raided the home on Brown Road and the one at Onate Drive.

Viewer video of the operation circulated through social media as nearby residents wondered and worried about what was happening around them.

The raid led to the arrest of both suspects and the seizure of the silver vehicle seen in surveillance video dropping off the suspects at the victim’s residence, as well as materials used in the kidnapping plot.

Investigators detailed in the arrest report that they also found writings with the victim’s name on them, but no victim. The man authorities had been working for over a week to find and rescue was nowhere to be found. However, unbeknownst to investigators at the time, the man they were looking for was right under their feet.

According to the arrest report, during an interrogation, Uriel allegedly told investigators the victim was being kept in a makeshift basement at the rear of the Onate property.

After learning this, authorities searched the property and discovered a hidden door on the floor, leading to a manmade tunnel underground where the victim was found alive, living inside a small room with a bed.

The victim was then rushed to the hospital to be checked. His exact medical condition is unknown, but authorities announced at the time of his discovery that he was unharmed.

The two suspects were booked at the El Paso County Detention Facility.