Nogales, Arizona - U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers arrested two Nogales, Arizona residents recently for attempting to smuggle tactical rifles with magazines and ammunition into Mexico through the Port of Nogales.

When officers selected a southbound Dodge sedan, driven by a 22-year-old local woman, for a secondary inspection on July 4 at the Nogales West Mariposa crossing, they found 10,000 rounds of tactical ammunition in the vehicle’s trunk.

Five days earlier (June 29), officers conducting southbound inspections at the Dennis DeConcini crossing referred a 24-year-old Nogales man for a secondary inspection of a Volkswagen sports wagon. When searching the back of the vehicle, they discovered a number of items beneath clothing. The items included two AR-15 tactical rifles, seven magazines and more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition.

Officers seized the vehicles and contraband, and referred both subjects to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.