Armando Torres III (disappeared 14 May 2013) is a U.S. marine in the Individual Ready Reserve who was reportedly kidnapped by gunmen near the U.S.-Mexico border in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

A native of San Benito, Texas, Torres served in United States Marine Corps in Africa and in the Iraq War for seven years.

[1][4] On 14 May 2013 at around 6 p.m., Torres crossed the Progreso–Nuevo Progreso International Bridge from Texas into Mexico to visit his father and other relatives at their ranch at La Barranca, a rural community near the border city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas.

[2][13][14] Hinojosa has been working with Congressman Filemon Vela Jr. and other Rio Grande Valley politicians to pressure Secretary of State John Kerry to use "diplomatic channels" to help find Torres.

[15] Among the congressmen who have also joined the White House petition are Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lynn Westmoreland, Mario Díaz-Balart, Aaron Schock, Edward Royce, John Carter, Walter B. Jones Jr., and Jeff Miller.

[17] The area where Armando was abducted is a key smuggling route for the Gulf Cartel, a transnational drug trafficking organization based in northeastern Mexico.

Properties that border the Rio Grande River are attractive for smugglers because these areas make it difficult for U.S. law enforcement officers to intercept their drug trafficking activities.

[4][17] Large portions of the South Texas border with Tamaulipas are rural and contain uninhabited areas that smugglers use to traffic drugs into the United States.

[18] When former President Felipe Calderón took office in December 2006 and carried a military-led campaign to tackle the country's drug trafficking organizations, violence across Mexico spread.

[20] The figures may possibly be higher since many kidnappings in Mexico go unreported, mainly because citizens distrust the police and fear that the captors might kill the victims if they contact the authorities.