Federal investigators say a gang member stockpiled guns, cash and a stolen car to help an inmate break free during a hospital transfer.
ALBUQUERQUE, NM — Federal authorities say a Phoenix arrest this week unraveled an alleged plan to arm a New Mexico inmate during a court-related hospital trip and send him on a run toward Mexico, linking a suspected gang member, hidden weapons and a stolen getaway car.
Prosecutors say the case matters now because the alleged escape plan was tied to an April 15 court appearance for Dakota Briscoe, an Albuquerque man already serving a 25-year federal sentence in a violent 2020 crime spree. Investigators say Crisantos “Ventex” Garcia, 34, was one of the outside helpers. Garcia now faces federal drug and gun charges, and the allegations have opened a new look at how a prisoner transfer could have turned into an armed flight in the middle of Albuquerque.
The federal case traces back more than a year. According to court records, FBI agents served three search warrants on Feb. 13, 2025, at Albuquerque properties tied to Garcia. Agents arrived at about 6 a.m. at a home on Aldea Avenue NW after a court approved the warrants three days earlier. Investigators said Garcia tried to escape by climbing out a second-story window, running across a roof and jumping into a neighbor’s yard. The fall, agents wrote, broke bones in both legs, his hand and his face, and he was taken to a hospital. Before he was transported, agents seized a white Samsung phone they later searched with a warrant. At the house, investigators said, they found about nine firearms, including a Draco-style pistol, ballistic vests, thousands of rounds of ammunition, cash and blue pills marked M30. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison said in announcing the case that the charges grew out of “an alleged plan to arm an inmate for an escape from custody.”
Investigators say the search widened quickly. At a second Albuquerque address on 58th Street NW, agents executed another warrant around 7:30 a.m. the same day after surveillance teams watched people come and go in a silver vehicle. The driver, according to the affidavit, was later stopped and found with a small amount of heroin and told agents the drugs came from Garcia. That person also told agents that Garcia’s firearms were inside what authorities described as a stash house. Agents said they then seized about five more firearms, another ballistic vest, thousands of rounds of ammunition and a high-capacity magazine. The complaint says a later review of Garcia’s phone turned up photos of firearms and messages about pill sales, rifles and ammunition. One Facebook user asked for “blues,” the affidavit said, while another contact discussed buying a tactical rifle. An FBI agent wrote that lab testing later found Garcia’s DNA on two of the guns seized in February 2025. The same affidavit says the blue pills turned out to contain heroin rather than fentanyl, an unusual detail in a case that also included messages investigators believed referred to fentanyl pills.
Authorities say the most striking part of the case emerged after the gun and drug inquiry was already underway. Prosecutors allege Garcia was stockpiling firearms, ammunition, cash and a stolen vehicle to support an escape plan devised by Briscoe. Investigators say Briscoe directed Garcia to place a firearm behind an ATM on the second floor of University of New Mexico Hospital. Other weapons, cash and a stolen car were also supposed to be nearby, according to the Justice Department. The plan, investigators said, was for Briscoe to fake a medical emergency during a scheduled April 15, 2026, court appearance so he would be taken from custody to the hospital, where outside help would be waiting. A letter recovered by investigators told others to coordinate by phone so a vehicle and gun would be in place, prosecutors said. Agents also said they learned Briscoe’s final goal was to flee to Mexico. Federal officials have not said publicly how close the plan came to being carried out, whether anyone else has been charged in the alleged escape effort, or exactly when investigators first learned of the hospital pickup point.
Briscoe is a familiar name in New Mexico courts. He was sentenced in January 2025 to 25 years in federal prison after being convicted of two counts of attempted carjacking, one count of carjacking and a firearms count tied to a violent spree in September 2020. Federal prosecutors said that spree began with a double homicide in Albuquerque’s South Valley, where two victims’ bodies were found in a burning vehicle. At trial, the government said witnesses saw Briscoe with a tan handgun and investigators recovered .45-caliber shell casings from crime scenes, though the gun itself was never found. Prosecutors said he then tried to evade capture through armed carjackings that targeted vulnerable people, including women. He was not arrested until Sept. 16, 2020, when Border Patrol agents stopped a white commercial-style van near Las Cruces that had no license plate or registration tag. Federal prosecutors said Briscoe gave agents his brother’s name and was booked under that identity. Separate state murder charges tied to the 2020 killings remain part of Briscoe’s broader legal history, but federal officials in this week’s filing focused on his existing prison sentence and the claimed effort to get him out of custody before he could be moved through the court system again.
The latest arrest happened in Arizona. Federal prosecutors said the FBI’s Desert Hawk Fugitive Task Force arrested Garcia at a Phoenix residence on April 14, one day before the alleged hospital-transfer date. Authorities said Garcia again tried to run, jumping walls and cutting through buildings, parking lots and heavily traveled streets while accompanied by his minor stepson. Agents said Garcia abandoned the child when they caught up with him and then took him into custody. The Justice Department has not publicly detailed whether the child was hurt. Garcia is charged with possession with intent to distribute 100 grams or more of a mixture containing heroin, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. Prosecutors said he will remain in custody pending trial, which had not been scheduled as of the government’s announcement. If convicted on the drug-trafficking count now at issue, he faces at least 10 years and up to 40 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The allegations have left a stark picture of how a prison break could have unfolded far from a prison gate. A gun hidden behind a hospital ATM, a staged stolen car and cash waiting nearby read like parts of a movie script, but the facts laid out in court papers come from a long chain of search warrants, lab work and seized phone data. The affidavit also describes Garcia as a suspected West Side Locos gang member and convicted felon, and it says agents already knew him as someone who drove a green Dodge Hellcat while armed and “ready to shoot it out with rivals.” That language reflects the investigator’s account, not a tested finding in court, and Garcia is presumed innocent unless prosecutors prove the charges. The same is true for the escape plot itself. For now, the public record is built mainly from a criminal complaint and a Justice Department news release, with important gaps still open, including who else may have known of the plan, whether additional arrests are coming and what extra security steps were taken around Briscoe’s April 15 proceeding once investigators believed an escape attempt was possible.
For New Mexico law enforcement, the case blends old and new fears: gang ties, armed trafficking cases, courthouse movement and a hospital setting where security can be harder to control. University of New Mexico Hospital was named in the alleged plot because investigators said that is where Briscoe expected to be moved if a medical emergency claim worked. The Justice Department did not accuse hospital staff of any wrongdoing, and no public filing suggests anyone inside the hospital was part of the plan. Still, the location stood out because the allegation placed a hidden weapon in a public building rather than near a jail transport route or parking area. Officials have not said whether the firearm was ever actually placed behind the ATM or whether the alleged escape plan was stopped before that step was taken. They also have not said whether Briscoe ever made the claimed medical move during the April 15 appearance or whether the hearing was altered after Garcia’s capture in Phoenix. Those answers will likely matter as prosecutors decide whether to file more charges tied directly to the alleged escape scheme.
As of Saturday, Garcia remained in federal custody and no trial date had been set. The next clear milestone is the filing of additional court papers that could show whether prosecutors expand the case beyond drugs and guns and bring direct escape-related counts tied to Briscoe’s alleged April 15 plan.
Author note: Last updated 2026-04-19.