U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Wednesday announced that officers seized more than 5,500 rounds of assorted ammunition on Tuesday at the Port of Nogales.
Officers were performing routine outbound inspections when a GMC SUV was flagged for further investigation. The driver, an 18 year-old male bound for Mexico, was discovered to be concealing 5,560 rounds of ammunition in the vehicle.
Officers turned the suspect, ammunition and the suspect’s vehicle over to U.S. Homeland Security Investigations.
“This interception is a direct result of the hard work and continued vigilance of our CBP officers,” Nogales Port Director Guadalupe Ramirez said. “Keeping ammunition out of the hands of drug traffickers disrupts their operations and reduces violence along the border.”
Authorities also announced three separate seizures of marijuana that were bound for the United States.
The first incident occurred on Saturday when Lordsburg Station agents were alerted to a suspicious vehicle south of the Animas Valley. Authorities acted quickly to disable the vehicle using a controlled tire deflation device. From there, two occupants fled into the desert leading to one suspect being captured. The other suspect successfully fled to Mexico. Agents found 205 bundles of marijuana throughout the truck, totaling 1,662 pounds.
In the second incident, authorities were alerted to three suspicious individuals carrying two large burlap backpacks walking through the desert. When authorities confronted the suspects, it was discovered that the suspects were carrying approximately 101 pounds of marijuana and they were taken into custody.
A third seizure occurred last Friday when authorities working near Las Cruces, New Mexico, flagged a Mitsubishi Endeavor SUV for inspection. Upon investigation, it was discovered that the driver concealed 66 pounds of marijuana throughout the vehicle. Both the contraband and the driver were handed over to the Drug Enforcement Agency.