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Border Patrol helps save man stranded in desert

Posted at 7:08 AM, May 12, 2016
and last updated 2016-05-12 10:08:15-04

Federal border authorities say a Mexican man has been rescued from a rugged ridgeline outside the southern Arizona town of Sells.

Around 8 p.m. Tuesday, the Three Points Border Patrol Station received a 911 distress call from a man saying he was lost and stranded.

Relying on approximate GPS coordinates taken from the distress call, Tucson Sector's Search Trauma and Rescue Team began searching over an area in the Baboquivari Mountain Range.

A helicopter crew spotted a person lying motionless on the mountainside, but couldn't land due to rough terrain.

BORSTAR agents carrying packs loaded with medical equipment began a two-hour trek on foot to get to the 42-year-old man.

An Arizona Department of Public Safety helicopter airlifted the man to a hospital. He remains in Border Patrol custody.