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Mexican bus drivers arrested in ammunition smuggling case at Texas border

Two Mexican bus drivers were arrested by U.S. border officials for allegedly attempting to smuggle 92,900 rounds of ammunition into Mexico across the Puente de los Américas in El Paso, officials said.

The discovery of the contraband on Saturday evening, August 17, in the luggage compartment of a charter bus to Mexico is one of the largest ammunition seizures in recent years at the El Paso border.

The seizure is nearly three times the amount of ammunition that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has seized during southbound inspections in El Paso over the past three fiscal years, Customs and Border Protection officials said Wednesday, Aug. 21.

“The magnitude of this seizure is impressive. Had this munitions fallen into the hands of transnational criminal organizations, the impact could have been devastating,” Hector A. Mancha, CBP El Paso's field operations director, 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.

The bus driver, Lucio Enriquez Garcia, and his passenger, Ramiro Antonio Barbosa Resendiz, were both arrested on charges of smuggling goods from the United States, officials said. Both drivers are Mexican citizens.

Ammunition smuggling in a bus to Mexico

The bus with the Mexican license plate stopped shortly after 7 p.m. Saturday as U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents were conducting southbound inspections at the Bridge of the Americas, according to a criminal complaint filed by a special agent with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The bus drivers told CBP officers that there were no firearms on board. Transporting firearms and ammunition into Mexico is illegal.

At the bridge's cargo building, CBP officers asked drivers to “disembark the passengers and their baggage for inspection,” the complaint states.

CBP officers found that drivers unloaded all of the passengers' luggage but failed to pick up black and yellow plastic containers in the cargo hold. Except for the 26 unclaimed containers, all of the luggage was traced to the passengers, the complaint states.

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The containers were unusually heavy, their edges were secured with zip ties, and drivers apparently had difficulty unloading them despite instructions from CBP officers, the complaint says.

The containers contained thousands of boxes of ammunition. Eleven containers contained 33,000 rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition. The other 15 containers contained 59,900 rounds of .223 caliber rifle ammunition, for a total of 92,900 rounds of ammunition, authorities said.

Mysterious cargo unloaded on roadside in Mexico

Enriquez, the bus driver, told CBP officers that the shipping containers were already on the bus when he picked it up and that he did not know who they belonged to or what was inside, the complaint states.

When Enriquez was later questioned by an HSI agent and a CBP task force officer, he allegedly told them that he had delivered similar containers twice in the past, the complaint states. Barbosa allegedly told the agents that he had done so before.

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Enriquez allegedly said he believed the containers contained tools but became suspicious because he was instructed to meet someone who was unloading the cargo on the side of the road in Durango, Mexico, the lawsuit says.

The driver told agents that he received $200 the first time and $700 was deposited on a debit card the second time, and that he shared $350 of that with Barbosa, who was not present for the first delivery, the complaint says.

If convicted, the bus drivers face up to ten years in prison for smuggling goods out of the United States, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The case remains under investigation by HSI and CBP.

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