Inmate work crew finds loaded handguns along Interstate 25 near Santo Domingo Pueblo

It had all the makings of a prison break: several inmates picking up trash along Interstate 25 find two fully-loaded handguns. Instead, it became a story of people, stripped of their freedom and presented with an opportunity, doing the right thing.

The New Mexico Corrections Department, in a news release on Facebook, detailed the Jan. 27 discovery with photos of the two handguns, found near the exit for Santo Domingo Pueblo.

The release said New Mexico State Police took custody of the firearms “for further investigation.” State Police spokesperson Amanda Richards said the guns were not reported stolen, and “further testing will take some time to determine if they are linked to any crimes.”

“We are grateful that this situation was resolved safely and quickly, thanks to the prompt response of our supervising correctional officer, as well as the inmates,” state Corrections Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero said in a statement.

A group of inmates found the guns “hidden beneath tumbleweeds” during a routine trash pickup, the department said. The inmates “immediately alerted the supervising correctional officer, who took swift action.”

The release states that, afterward, the inmate work crew returned to the Los Lunas prison and all nine inmates were “carefully searched and interviewed by the NMCD Security Threat Intelligence Unit, which did not result in any findings.”

Benjamin Baker, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s Public Safety policy adviser, said, “We could be having a whole different discussion but for the actions, the conduct, and the behavior of those inmates.”

“We’re talking about two loaded handguns being introduced to a place where you have custody and control of folks who are serving out periods of incarceration for convictions and other crimes,” Baker said in a statement. “It could have been a completely different story.”