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Border Patrol seizes 90K bullets from a tour bus headed for Mexico
About 92,000 rounds of ammo were confiscated during a search of a commercial bus on the Mexican border by El Paso on Saturday.
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Two tour bus drivers were arrested last week after allegedly trying to smuggle 90,000 rounds of rifle ammunition to Mexico at the El Paso border crossing.
The drivers were not identified, but they are from Mexico, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson Roger Maier said in a news release.
The 92,900 rounds of ammo confiscated almost tripled the number that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized in the last three years combined, Maier said.
“The magnitude of this seizure is impactful,” CBP El Paso Director of Field Operations Hector A. Mancha said in a statement. “Had this ammunition fallen into the hands of transnational criminal organizations, the impact could have been devastating.”
Maier said just after 7 p.m. Saturday, members of the CBP’s Anti-Terrorism Contraband Enforcement Team were inspecting a Mexican tour bus headed back across the border when the two men employed as drivers on the bus displayed “nervous behavior.”
According to CBP, during a search of the bus, the enforcement team found multiple 27-gallon plastic storage totes “that seemed very heavy.” In them, they found boxes containing the 92,900 rounds of ammo.
The drivers will face charges “related to the failed smuggling attempt,” Maier said.
“CBP officers working at the El Paso port of entry target all threats to enforce laws on the international border and make our communities safer on both sides of the border,” acting CBP El Paso Port Director Albert Barnes said.
Maier said there were 16 people on the bus during the search, one was in the U.S. illegally while the other 15 people were released and put on another bus.
