CBP El Paso arrests drivers, seizes 92,000 rounds of ammo in Mexico-bound bus at border
Two Mexican bus drivers were arrested by U.S. border agents for allegedly attempting to smuggle 92,900 rounds of ammunition into Mexico at the Bridge of the Americas in El Paso, officials said.
The contraband discovery on Saturday evening, Aug. 17, in the luggage compartment of a Mexico-bound charter bus is one of the largest ammo seizures in recent years at the El Paso border.
The seizure is almost triple the amount of ammunition that U.S Customs and Border Protection has seized in southbound inspections in El Paso in the last three fiscal years combined, CBP officials said Wednesday, Aug. 21.
"The magnitude of this seizure is impactful. Had this ammunition fallen into the hands of transnational criminal organizations the impact could have been devastating," CBP El Paso Director of Field Operations Hector A. Mancha said in a statement.
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The bus was traveling from Phoenix to Zacatecas, Mexico, with 16 passengers on board, including children, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas said in a statement.
Bus driver, Lucio Enriquez Garcia, and assistant driver, Ramiro Antonio Barbosa Resendiz, were each arrested on federal charges of smuggling goods from the United States, officials said. Both drivers are Mexican citizens.
Ammo contraband in Mexico-bound bus
The bus with Mexico license plates pulled up shortly after 7 p.m. Saturday as U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers were conducting southbound inspections at the Bridge of the Americas, stated a criminal complaint filed by a special agent with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations.
The bus drivers told CBP officers that there were no firearms on board. It is illegal to transport firearms and ammunition into Mexico.
At the bridge's cargo facility, CBP officers told the drivers to "deboard the passengers and their luggage for inspection," the complaint stated.
CBP officers noted that the drivers unloaded all the passengers' luggage, but skipped black and yellow plastic totes in the cargo undercarriage. All the luggage was matched to passengers, except for the 26 unclaimed tote containers, the complaint stated.
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The totes were unusually heavy, their edges were zip tied and the drivers appeared to struggle to unload them after so ordered by CBP officers, the complaint stated.
The totes contained thousands of boxes of ammunition. Eleven totes held 33,000 rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition. The other 15 totes contained 59,900 rounds of .223 caliber rifle ammunition for a total of 92,900 rounds of ammo, authorities stated.
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Enriquez, the bus driver, told CBP officers that the tote containers were already inside the bus when he picked it up and that he did not know who they belonged to and what was inside them, the complaint stated.
When later questioned by a HSI agent and a CBP task force officer, Enriquez allegedly told them that he had previously delivered similar totes twice in the past, the complaint stated. Barbosa allegedly told agents he had done it once before.
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Enriquez allegedly said that he believed that the totes contained tools but that he had suspicions because he was instructed to meet someone who offloaded the cargo on the side of a road in Durango, Mexico, the complaint stated.
The driver told agents that he was paid $200 the first time and was paid $700 deposited into a debit card the second time, which he split $350 with Barbosa, who was not present for the first shipment, the complaint stated.
If convicted, the bus drivers could face up to 10 years in federal prison for smuggling goods from the United States, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The case remains under investigation by HSI and CBP.