BROCKTON — A Guatemalan man whose remains were found last week in a cardboard box in Duxbury had a 14-inch incision bisecting his abdomen that may have been made to empty the contents of his stomach, prosecutors said Monday. 
 
 Plymouth County prosecutors revealed those details as they identified the man as Estuardo Leonel Melgar Perez. The 44-year-old Guatemalan national arrived in the United States on a flight from Honduras on July 25, two days before his remains were found, said Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz in a statement. 
 
 Continue reading below 
 
 The incision stretched from the breast bone to the pelvis, but investigators didn’t find any internal damage except for a “careful cut to the stomach, presumably to access the contents of the stomach,” said Assistant District Attorney Peter Maguire. He didn’t say what, if anything, was being sought from Melgar Perez’s stomach. Melgar Perez didn’t have other injuries, according to Maguire. 
 
 Related 
 
 Marc Vasconcellos/The Enterprise of Brockton/Pool Jose Milthon Freddy Azurdia-Montenegro, 55, of Guatemala, stood behind a partition during his arraignment. 
 
 Maguire disclosed information about the remains during an arraignment in Brockton District Court for Jose Milthon Freddy Azurdia-Montenegro, 55, a Guatemalan national who is charged with witness intimidation related to accusations that he misled police investigating his countryman’s death. 
 
 State Police met Azurdia-Montenegro at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York as he was trying to board a plane to Honduras early Saturday; he voluntarily returned to Massachusetts for questioning, Maguire said. Melgar Perez was scheduled to take the same flight, Cruz’s office said. 
 
 Investigators connected the two men after learning Melgar Perez had listed a Massachusetts resident as a local contact, Maguire said. That person provided authorities with access to his cellphone, which in turn led investigators to Azurdia-Montenegro, Maguire said. 
 
 Azurdia-Montenegro returned to Massachusetts with police from New York and was questioned, said defense attorney Scott Bradley. 
 
 Continue reading below 
 
 He initially told officers he never left New York while visiting the United States, had met Melgar Perez on only one occasion months ago, and wasn’t aware of his death, Maguire said. Azurdia-Montenegro did disclose that he and Melgar Perez are both in the car industry, the prosecutor said. 
 
 Officers then confronted Azurdia-Montenegro with evidence and also had someone they had interviewed speak with Azurdia-Montenegro, Maguire said. That person told Azurdia-Montenegro, “They know. You should speak with them,” Maguire recounted. Azurdia-Montenegro then acknowledged he knew Melgar Perez for five or six years and had been in the Boston area. 
 
 Bradley identified the person who spoke with his client as Hector Perez and said Azurdia-Montenegro was in the area to purchase vehicles from Perez’s brother, Jose, to be shipped back to Guatemala. Jose Perez has an auto body shop in Boston, Bradley said. Neither Jose nor Hector Perez could be reached Monday. 
 
 Officers also asked Azurdia-Montenegro about a person “who may or may not have been involved in the drug trade,” Maguire said. He didn’t identify the person. Azurdia-Montenegro initially denied knowing the person, but then reversed himself, Maguire said. He also told police that Melgar Perez knew the person. 
 
 Bradley said Azurdia-Montenegro has no connection to the drug trade, didn’t commit a crime, and immediately corrected false information he gave to police. He said Azurdia-Montenegro and Melgar Perez arrived in the United States separately and traveled here to buy cars and ship them home. 
 
 “It’s somewhat disturbing that the State Police are now arresting people who haven’t committed any crimes just to force them to stick around because they think they’ll run away in case they have further questions for them in the future,” Bradley said. 
 
 District Judge Julie Bernard set bail at $10,000 and approved a request to impound a police report filed in Azurdia-Montenegro’s case. 
 
 No one answered the phone Monday at the Guatemalan consulate’s New England office and an e-mail was not returned. ||||| BROCKTON, Mass. — A man pleaded not guilty Monday to misleading police investigating the death of another Guatemalan man whose remains were found in a box on a street corner, with a large incision on his abdomen. 
 
 Jose Milthon Freddy Azurdia-Montenegro, 55, was arraigned in Brockton District Court and ordered detained on $10,000 bail. He also had to surrender his passport. 
 
 The remains of Estuardo Leonel Melgar Perez, 44, were found in a box in the South Shore town of Duxbury on July 27. 
 
 Prosecutors said Monday that someone cut the body open and removed some "contents." They didn't elaborate. Police had said Melgar Perez had a 14-inch incision on his abdomen. The cause and manner of death remain under investigation. 
 
 Authorities didn't release details of the allegations against Azurdia-Montenegro. 
 
 His public defender, Scott Bradley, said the two men were acquaintances in the car buying and selling business, but Azurdia-Montenegro didn't know anything about Melgar Perez's death. Bradley said both men came to the U.S. to buy cars for resale in their native Guatemala, but they came here separately. 
 
 "At best he's a witness who had some information and now they want to keep him in the United States indefinitely," Bradley said. 
 
 Both Melgar Perez and Azurdia-Montenegro were scheduled to leave the U.S. this past Saturday on the same flight to Honduras, authorities said. 
 
 Melgar Perez flew from Honduras to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City on July 25, officials said. Two days later, Duxbury police responded to a report of a suspicious box. Police said the box was partially open and a strong odor was coming from it. 
 
 The Department of Homeland Security used fingerprints to identify the remains as those of Melgar Perez.
– Massachusetts police have made an arrest in the case of an alleged drug mule whose body was reportedly cut open to retrieve smuggled drugs, WCVB reports. Eight days ago, residents of Duxbury, Mass., found a box giving off a strong smell—and inside discovered a man whose torso had been cut open with a 14-inch incision. Reports suggest that the man, Estuardo Perez of Guatemala, had been a drug mule. Now prosecutors have charged another Guatemalan, Jose Azurdia-Montenegro, 55, with misleading a police investigation into the case. Using a local resident's cellphone records, investigators tracked Azurdia-Montenegro and stopped him before he could board a flight at JFK Airport on Saturday, an assistant DA tells the Boston Globe. Azurdia-Montenegro initially said he'd just met the victim, but his attorney now says the two were visiting the US to buy cars for resale in Guatemala, the Boston Herald reports. Yet Azurdia-Montenegro insists he knows nothing of the murder, and authorities say a third man may be involved. Grim detail: The incision on Perez's body was a "careful cut to the stomach, presumably to access the contents of the stomach," says the assistant DA.