Roberto Bejarano, chief of the Sonora state police investigative unit in Naco, Mexico, said Phoenix-area residents Raul Arellanes Valdez, 31, Lewis Lee Harold, 48, Ricardo Polanco, 49, and Polanco's two sons captured two Mexican citizens as they were walking down a street Wednesday morning.

A judge is expected to decide this week whether there is enough evidence to charge them with the crime of unlawful deprivation of freedom, Bejarano said.

Bounty hunting is illegal in Mexico, which has previously pursued criminal charges against TV reality star Duane "Dog" Chapman.

Chapman, who stars in the A&E television show "Dog the Bounty Hunter," was arrested in September by U.S. authorities on a Mexican warrant following his capture of fugitive convicted rapist and Max Factor cosmetics heir Andrew Luster in that country.

Bejarano said the suspects loaded the two men into a pickup truck at gunpoint, tied their feet together and told them they were U.S. officials. But the two men struggled with their captors and were able to jump from the truck just before it crossed into the United States.

A short time later, Bejarano said, the five alleged bounty hunters returned to Naco, Mexico, wearing new sets of clothing but driving the same pickup.

Police spotted the vehicle and arrested the men. Bejarano believes they were hired to capture Perez and Vizcarra and recover a car that they had allegedly stolen.

Mexican authorities contacted officials at the U.S. consulate in Nogales, Mexico, to notify them of the arrests, he said.