| | |  Americas & Beyond | January 2009 
ICE: Suspects had AK-47 Assault Rifles, Ammo for Mexico
 Darren Meritz - Sun-News
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| "This seizure highlights the importance the importance of ICE's mission to enforce the nation's arms export control laws."
- Julio Velez | |
El Paso - Two men were arrested on charges of conspiring to smuggle 11 AK-47 assault rifles, thousands of rounds of ammunition, bayonets and other items into Mexico in a scheme officials believe would have contributed to cartel violence.
Officials said Miguel Angel Dominguez, 25, and Begmar Ivan Ruiz-Zuniga, 30, appeared before federal Magistrate Judge Norbert Garney on Monday. Garney set a $50,000 bond for Dominguez and ordered Ruiz-Zuniga, a non-immigrant visa border crossing card holder, to remain at the El Paso County Jail.
ICE officials suspect Dominguez and Ruiz-Zuniga of "participating in a large international network that conspires to smuggle into Mexico assault weapons."
Lawyers for the defendants could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
"Especially considering the ongoing bloody war between feuding cartels south of the border, this weapons seizure is significant," Julio Velez, acting special agent in charge of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Investigations in El Paso, said in a statement. "This seizure highlights the importance the importance of ICE's mission to enforce the nation's arms export control laws."
The charges against Dominguez and Ruiz-Zuniga are the latest in a string of cases in El Paso aimed at stopping the illegal flow of weapons across the border. Weapons experts have been saying that smuggling rings are helping to arm cartels in Mexico that rely on the availability of assault weapons in the United States.
Dominguez and Ruiz-Zuniga were arrested Dec. 23 when ICE agents discovered 11 AK-47 assault rifles, two military-style bayonets, ballistic body armor, 2,560 rounds of Russian ammunition, seven M-16 ammunition magazines and 20 rounds of armor piercing .223-caliber ammunition at a pair of El Paso residences, according to court documents.
Ronald Marcell, a special agent with ICE, said in an affidavit that ICE investigators had been conducting surveillance after receiving information that suggested Ruiz-Zuniga was involved in weapons trafficking.
On Dec. 23, agents were conducting surveillance on a residence in the 11800 block of Dick Mayers in East El Paso when they found the weapons and ammunition in the house and in the back of a van. Agents, who also discovered tools that appeared to be for working on firearms at an apartment shared by the defendants, arrested Ruiz-Zuniga and Dominguez later that day.
"Ruiz stated he did not want to identify the individuals in Mexico that he was obtaining the ammunition and firearms for," the affidavit said. "Ruiz further stated that he did not purchase the firearms or ammunition and that all he was to do was arrange for the pick- up of the ammunition and firearms and that he would then turn them over to another individual that would smuggle the ammunition and firearms into Mexico."
Last month, a spokesman with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said that since Oct. 1, about 50 cases of arms smuggling, many with ties to El Paso, were under investigation through an initiative called Project Gunrunner, a federal effort to stem the flow of weapons to Mexico.
Experts have said U.S. law enforcement is cooperating with their Mexican counterparts and often are able to trace weapons recovered from crimes across the border to the United States.
Last year in Juárez, more than 1,600 people were killed in a drug war with firearms that included the use of automatic rifles and pistols.
Darren Meritz reports for the El Paso Times, a member of the Texas-New Mexico Newspapers Partnership, and may be reached at dmeritz(at)elpasotimes.com |
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