Oct. 28 (UPI) — A Mexican father and son duo residing legally in Alabama were arrested and charged with allegedly trafficking of hundreds of weapons, as well as magazines and ammunition.
Emilio Ramirez Cortes and his son, Edgar Emilio Ramirez Diaz, were stopped Thursday by U.S. border agents as they approached the Juarez-Lincoln Port of Entry in Laredo in two separate vehicles loaded with more than 300 hundred weapons, magazines and rounds of ammunition.
“This seizure of an immense quantity of firearms illustrates the Southern District of Texas’s full-spectrum approach to fighting the cartels,” U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei said.
“We will attack every facet of their operations until they are wiped off the face of the earth,” he added in a statement.
Ramirez Cortes, a Mexican citizen who legally resides in Alabama, reportedly drove a Chevrolet Silverado with a Mexican license plate while his son sat behind the wheel of an Alabama-plated Chevrolet Tahoe and appeared to drive in tandem.
Both vehicles were seen hauling enclosed white box utility trailers in which authorities found false walls hiding well over 300 rifles and pistols “as well as various caliber ammunition and magazines,” federal officials allege.
Court records allege the men were paid for the smuggling attempt and made similar trips on multiple occasions.
U.S. border officials said this summer that CBP officers near the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas continue to seize a “large” number of outbound firearms in scores of attempted smugglings to other countries.
In the last two years, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized over 400 handguns and long arms, nearly 1,000 magazines and gun parts, and nearly 52,000 rounds of ammunition.
Ganjei said those who “illegally traffic guns to Mexico empower cartels to terrorize the innocent.”
Meanwhile, Ramirez Cortes and Ramirez Diaz made initial court appearances in a federal court in Laredo.
Both men were charged with smuggling firearms, ammunition, magazines and other accessories as well as firearm trafficking.
They remain in custody pending a detention hearing scheduled for Friday.