The New Mexico Department of Justice on Monday announced its agents had arrested a San Miguel County landowner whom Attorney General Raúl Torrez had previously accused of building “traps” and threatening fishermen along the Pecos River for nearly three years.

Court records show a judge signed an arrest warrant last week for Erik Briones.

From April of 2023 to March of this year, Torrez’s office alleged that Briones has threatened fishermen who ventured near his property by brandishing firearms and telling the fishermen he was about to commence “target practicing” near them.

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Special agents with the NMDOJ interviewed witnesses to Briones’ alleged behavior, including one who alleged that he “observed Erik Briones holding a shotgun and cocking the slide portion of the shotgun while telling him something to the effect of ‘I am going to start shooting rounds near you, and if you’re in the way, well I’m sorry.’”

The NMDOJ has charged Briones with five counts of aggravated assault.

“These allegations involve dangerous and unlawful intimidation directed at New Mexicans who were exercising their legal right to access and recreate in public waters,” Torrez said in a statement Monday. “No one has the right to threaten violence against members of the public because they disagree with established law. Our office will continue enforcing both the criminal laws of this state and the public access protections guaranteed under New Mexico law.”

In 2022, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that members of the public have a right to use streams for recreation such as paddling, fishing and wading — even if the land beneath the water is privately owned.

Torrez recently won a victory in court over access to the Pecos River when a judge last month ruled that Briones had to take down the barriers he’d constructed on the river with heavy machinery and restore the riverbed.