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We got handgun magazines. We have Glock magazines, 45s, 38 specials, These are going to the cartel. Yeah, these are going to go for the drug war. Texas is one of the most gun-friendly states in America, and it's perfectly legal to carry a weapon. But crossing into Mexico with a firearm is another matter altogether. In Progresso, a pedestrian's been detained after it was discovered he was carrying a gun in his belt. here. We saw him and his wife walking back from the southbound lane. So, we went with an approach. They were already coming down towards us uh right there.
Um as we met him, he advised us that he had his weapon. The man told officers he'd forgotten he had the gun until he was nearly in Mexico. He was looking to go back to his vehicle and drop it off. So advise him, okay, for his safety and for our safety, we're going to have to cuff you, take inside, and do our procedures. Crossing weapons from the US into Mexico is forbidden and can incur severe penalties. But for many Texans, carrying a gun is second nature.
I always carry my gun. Why? Look at all the students in schools, in churches, and everywhere in theaters. You [clears throat] you can't you're not safe anymore. Too many shootings everywhere. There's no respect anymore. And I can't trust nobody anymore. If one of these days something happens, if I have a chance, I'm going to take him down if I'm left. I was at the mall. Hey, he's going to go get my bill. Oh, I got my 20 guns. The man says he's a law-abiding citizen and even has a background in policing.
Well, the past 23 years I've been I have a security guard company, but before that I'm a FARPD. I am a retired police officer. Oh, nice. You like that? I 22 years. My cop when I was 21. Wow. You probably weren't even born yet. No, I was not. Okay. Uh, obviously you were taking the gun into Mexico. You're trying to do the right thing and bring it back. Yeah. At that time, the officers cuffed you up. Why? For our safety and yours. Okay. Um, we do have to run serial numbers and all that good stuff on the weapon.
Make sure it's not stolen or anything like that. Uh, if everything checks out well, you will be on your way. Okay. The man is lucky that he came to his senses in time. Mexico has strict gun laws. And if he'd been caught with the weapon there, he could have been facing 20 years in prison. 238. P238. instead. As long as the gun's not stolen, he'll face no charges. It is under your name, right? Yeah, it's in my name. A check on the serial number confirms that the gun is registered and legally owned. Here's your case. You back your animal.
You all set? Yeah, we're set. Hey, thanks, guys. Thanks. Be careful. The man can return his weapon to his car. [__] and is freed to continue his journey into Mexico on foot in the lanes leaving the United States. We're going to open them up and get an accurate count of them. After discovering a concealed shipment of gun barrels bound for Mexico, officers alerted Homeland Security Investigations. I said there was two boxes out of five. So HSI saw that and they're like, "Hey, where are the other boxes?" They asked the driver. The driver like, "Well, they might still be at the warehouse." So HSI went to the warehouse. They kept on
finding different boxes and they brought them over here. The hunt for the missing shipment was far more successful than officers expected and has led to a massive seizure of elicit firearm parts. Every seizure counts. Every time that we see something, there's all always something going on in the background like investigation. It is a lot of guns. They don't have all the parts here. I don't know if they already shipped them or they're going to ship them or they're going to make the rest of the parts over there.
Like we have this, we have the magazines and I don't know what else we have. I'll keep looking. Either they were building a small army or they were going to sell them illegally. Officer Garza counts and logs all the confiscated parts. 62 right here. Total count of these for these is 95 plus the 20 that we had equals 115. It's a lot of barrels. Mexico has one of the highest rates of gun violence in the world. And thanks to the officer's investigation, this major seizure of weapon components could represent a huge blow to the sale of illegal firearms. From my experience, um, based on other seizures that I've encountered.
This could either be for nefarious reasons for the cartel or it could be for a illicit shop in Mexico that's selling these weapon parts. So, it's a nice exhilarating thrill to be here. Yeah, it makes it worthwhile at the Huarez Lincoln Bridge. This one looks like it's for a 45 and a 9 mm right here. Officers have detained two men heading into Mexico after they were found with pistol magazines hidden in a suitcase. As we were scanning this suitcase, Officer Torres pointed out an anomaly in the rapid scan, and we found some magazines in the socks, in the clothing. Although the magazines were empty, bringing weapons parts across the border is a crime punishable by up to 25 years in prison.
Now, we need to check the rest of the vehicle, see if there's any weapons, weapons parts, more magazines within the vehicle. Smugglers often break weapons down into smaller parts to make them harder to find. Officers are searching for barrels, grips, springs, or triggers. Sometimes you don't find the complete gun. Sometimes it comes in pieces. Could be traveling with another traveler. Anything that can be reassembled into a weapon across the border. They are all illegal. All those pieces add up. They might not cost much here in the US, but price of it gets higher as it travels down south.
Nothing is found in any of the items inside the car. Are we done checking it? Yeah. Check side panels. Yeah. Now, the body of the vehicle is searched. A firearm that is legally purchased for a few hundred in the US can sell for a few thousand south of the border. Even smuggling part of a weapon can be very profitable, but nothing is found. We checked the entirety of the van inside and out with our physically we can't find anything. So, we're just going to go and take it to the uh Z portal, the X-ray, to see if there's anything else that we might have missed.
The Zportal can detect items hidden inside the structure of the car itself. Looks good, man. Looks good. Clear. All right. That search also comes back clean. Everything came out negative. There was no anomalies that we found. The men have been investigated and officers have found no criminal records or cartel links. So, the subjects didn't know that it was illegal to cross magazines. They knew about firearms and the ammunitions, but they didn't think that magazines were a big deal. So, we're going to go ahead and seize them.
The men can expect another close inspection next time they cross the border. So, the subject's on record now. He knows that it's illegal to cross any kind of weapon part and if it happens again, he will be prosecuted. It's not uncommon for officers on this bridge to hear gunfire late at night coming from Reosa, Mexico, the town on the other side of the river. We got some anomalies in the trunk. Can you pop it? With ammunition selling for more than 10 times its cost in America, she's pretty big. Officers here work to stop the flow of weapons going south.
Damn, that's a lot of ammo. All right, this is it. It's what we've been looking for. 762 ammo, rifle, magazines. This could hurt a lot of people. It's a lot of bodies. Looks like to be about I don't be 3 4,000 rounds. Maybe more. We're going to count it, take it to the back and get an exact count. We've had uh magazines before, other kind of stuff, but as far as uh ammunition of this quantity, we haven't had anything like this recently.
Recently, this is our first uh real significant seizure of um ammunition for this quarter. So, it's going to we did good today. About 250,000 firearms are bought in America every year with the sole purpose of being illegally exported to Mexico. In 2017, nearly 100 people were murdered every day, putting Mexico on track to have its bloodiest year in nearly two decades. The markup on weapons and ammunition sold on the black market is astronomical. with a box of ammo worth $200 in Texas, selling for over 3,000 just on the other side of the bridge.
He bought it at maybe three or four different stores. In Texas, there's no restrictions on ammo. I can buy a large amount of ammo, but um in Mexico, they're not allowed to have ammo or weapons. And uh lately, there's been gun battles on a daily basis. This is two 8 19 20 21 75 Five. We're going to hit about 90 boxes. uh AK-47s, U 45s, 38 specials, and uh AR-15s. Those are a highowered high capacity.
Very high powered high capacity. So, this is a very significant seizure. Think we have a total of 5,000, maybe four or 5,000 rounds and magazines. Got handgun magazines. We have Glock magazines, 45s, 38 specials, These are going to the cartel. Yeah, these are going to go for the drug war. Officers suspect the driver is trying to avoid inspection and is immediately intercepted. The driver is a 30-year-old woman accompanied by her young son. It appeared she saw us and she turned around, made an immediate U-turn. It's pretty dangerous. I mean, cars are coming at 60 mph down the ramp here, and she was willing to go the other way.
We're able to catch up with her here and just checking things out. Now, to find out why the woman was so eager to get away, officers begin searching the car. I didn't see any CPL or license or anything. until officers open a bag on the front seat and find something strictly forbidden from crossing the border. Got a handgun right here. a firearm. You can find a gun. I need you to run a serial number. Stand by. There are 145 million handguns in circulation in the US.
You're going to be A as in Alpha, C is in a Charlie, but it's illegal to bring one to a federal border. And the presence of a young child raises further concerns. She has got a five or six year old kid with her. So, we got to run the firearm, see if it's stolen or anything like that, and then uh we just have to continue looking into it and see where we're going to go with it. While they wait for intel on the weapon, officers want to confirm the driver's identity. You have your ID? I can't find it. I searched everything in there. Where is it, ma'am?
He got it. Officer Musla calls for an ID check. First name, last name. If the woman is found to be in possession of an illegal handgun, she'll be immediately arrested. No. Did we run the gun? Yeah. He says negative. Neither the gun nor the woman have been linked to any previous criminal activity. We ran the gun, ran the person. Uh they're both clean. It turns out she's a delivery driver for an online retailer. Detroit has one of the highest rates of violent crime in the US. And because she sometimes delivers in dangerous
neighborhoods, she says she keeps the gun for protection. What we're going to do is we're going to just let her know not to bring any weapons near the border. She accidentally made a wrong turn over here. She's actually making a delivery and she's with her kid. So, we're going to let her go ahead and leave back in to conduct her job duties. Satisfied with her story, Officer Musla needs to ensure the weapon is stored safely. We're going to put it in the glove compartment, empty, um, safe for transport so that she can head home. The gun is in the glove compartment and then your ammunition is going to be in the back. That's how you federally transport everything safely. Okay. Once
you get out the area, then you can stop and do whatever you like. I ain't going to stop till I get home. The woman is lucky she didn't continue and cross the border. You know, if you went into Canada, it would have been a big deal because they have a really strict gun law over there. The penalty for carrying a weapon in Canada is 5 years in prison. Instead, the woman is free to go and officers will escort her back to the correct freeway.
You're going to follow these officers right over here. They're you're going to follow them through the facility. Keep following them and they're going to take you on the exit to Jefferson. All right. Thank you. Follow us. We'll get you back in the short in Eagle Pass. So, these are rounds, ammunition, the pistol, and it's actually loaded. Officers searching a courier van crossing into Mexico have found rounds of ammunition as well as a loaded gun. Yep. It's right in my face loading. Glock 19. That's a Glock 19. Same gun. Despite protests from his friends,
the driver of the van is detained. He will be interviewed by officers to find out who this shipment was for and whether he knew what was in it. As the officers continue to x-ray the contents of the van, more suspicious boxes are brought in for inspection. Another one. rounds in this one. Nice. There's ammo in here, too. This one's full of ammo. They're 760. They're for AK-47 or a hunting rifle.
There are thousands of dollars worth of AK-47 ammunition. Once again, it's been concealed in children's clothing and toys. See this box? I already feel it. Nope. I don't know. It's in here. So, they concealed in the bottom of these ratchet straps. Can you wrap these like burritos, dude? Might be loose, bro. They put many layers on it. It's loose. That's 9 mil with the Glock.
The search yields even more finds. Hundreds and hundreds of rounds for the Glock 19 pistol and for a 22 rifle. Good thing we stopped him cuz we got quite a bit of ammo today. And hidden in a different bag, Officer Fll finds yet another concealed gun. Berettto. Frierto Berto. It's weird. All of the guns and ammo are photographed and counted. CBP officers have intercepted a huge number of elicit weapons. So, the final count that we got of 762 is going to be 417 rounds. The 22 caliber is going to be 95. For the 9 mm is going to be 374 rounds.
