By News/Web Producer Joe Villasana

FAR EAST EL PASO COUNTY -- Sheriff's deputies foiled an alleged plot to bust a convicted felon out of a correctional facility near Sparks and Horizon City.

Officials with the El Paso County Sheriff's Office said a deputy arrived at the Intermediate Sanction Facility located at 1650 Horizon to take custody of Rolando Ramos Martinez, 36, of Corpus Christi, TX. Martinez, a confirmed member of the Mexican Mafia prison gang, was wanted on charges of parole violation.

As the deputy escorted Martinez outside the facility, he noticed the convicted felon started to walk towards a Chrysler 300 parked outside. Two men were standing outside the vehicle. At this point, the deputy forcibly escorted Martinez back into the correctional facility and called for back up.

The deputy and correctional officers from the facility then approached the vehicle and the two men standing outside ran into the nearby desert, officials said.

Inside the vehicle, a male passenger was urging a female driver to drive away, officials added. The driver and another female passenger were forced to exit the vehicle at gunpoint and were arrested immediately, officials said.

Sheriff's officials said the man yelling at the driver to drive away was identified as Armando Martinez, 27, of the 1800 block of Andalucia in El Paso. Armando, also a confirmed member of the Mexican Mafia prison gang, had two previous arrests on charges of Engaging in Organized Criminal Activity. Officials said Armando was also convicted of murder but failed to specify why he was out of prison.

The deputy forcibly removed Armando Martinez from the vehicle after he refused to exit, officials said, adding he was "extremely" combative with the deputy and the officers. Assisting deputies arrived moments later to help subdue Armando Martinez, who continued to put up a struggle. He remains jailed at the El Paso County Detention Facility under a $26,500 bond.

"The incident could have turned tragic the if the deputy was not aware of his surroundings, and what was going on," said Deputy Jesse Tovar, the spokesman for the sheriff's office.

A helicopter support team with U.S. Customs and Border Protection was called to the scene to conduct an air search for the two suspects that ran away into the desert. Authorities on the ground tracked several shoe impressions in the desert area that were lost once they led into the Sparks area. The search for the suspects was called off a short time later.

Dora Hernandez, the director of a nearby child daycare center, told ABC-7 the incident is cause for concern.  "My concern is the children in the Sparks area. Sometimes, they are left alone, and that's my biggest concern," she said.