EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A Mexican couple on a weekend shopping trip to Arizona is facing federal charges for allegedly trying to smuggle 12 firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition out of the U.S.
Jeronimo Delgado Pascual and Elisa Yanil Tapia Patino on Sunday came on the radar of Homeland Security Investigation agents conducting surveillance on a red Dodge Ram with Georgia license plates parked outside a gun store in Sierra Vista, Arizona.
Court records allege the couple’s Kia Sportage bearing Sonora, Mexico, license plates pulled up to the Dodge Ram and that Delgado and Tapia got out and began to transfer luggage from the Ram to their vehicle.
The couple then proceeded to a Best Buy store and to a nearby Walmart to shop for assorted items while two minors ages 2 and 12 remained inside the Kia, records show.
Federal agents became aware the couple entered the U.S. a few hours earlier through the Douglas, Arizona, port of entry, so U.S. Customs and Border Protection began inspecting vehicles trying to exit the United States through the port.
Records show a CBP officer stopped the Kia and asked driver Delgado if he had weapons, ammunition or cash in excess of $10,000 to declare. Delgado said no but CBP referred the vehicle to a secondary inspection area, where officers found rifles under the spare tire, handguns concealed in the center console, and 2,132 rounds of ammunition in the lining of the back seat, according to a federal complaint filed on Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.
Court records identify the firearms as six rifles and six handguns; a photo of the weapons shows several banana clips typically used for AK-47-style assault rifles.
In an interview with HSI agents, Tapia insisted the family had gone to Sierra Vista on a shopping trip. But she allegedly admitted to meeting with a woman from Nebraska at a store parking lot she had met before but whose name she did not know.
Court records don’t show whether the woman – from Georgia or Nebraska – was taken into custody as well. There was no word, either, on what happened to the minors.
Delgado and Tapia are facing charges of smuggling goods from the United States. Records show a preliminary hearing was set for Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce G. Macdonald in Tucson.
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