U.S. woman detained for smuggling ammunition into Mexico

[News_Editor]

U.S. woman detained for smuggling ammunition into Mexico

2011-08-05 15:08:38 GMT+7 (ICT)

CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO (BNO NEWS) – A U.S. woman has been arrested on the Mexican border for trying to smuggle 3,500 cartridges into the country, police said on Friday.

Gwendolyn Marrufo Sánchez was crossing into Mexico at the Ciudad Juárez border post on a public bus from El Paso, Texas when Mexican Army soldiers conducted a routine search. Soldiers subsequently found 100 boxes of ammunition for different caliber weapons hidden under some clothes and food.

According to officials, the soldiers had found the trolley with a bag of clothes and food but became suspicious when they noticed the extreme weight of the trolley. When they opened it, they found 3,500 cartridges distributed in various boxes.

Marrufo confessed she was planning to deliver the cartridges to Ciudad Juarez, which is Mexico's most violent city. She is currently being held at a detention center in northern Chihuahua State where a judge will decide her legal status for her alleged responsibility of violating Firearms and Explosives Federal Law.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has repeatedly urged the U.S. government to implement stricter laws regulating the sale of guns and ammunition in the U.S. to prevent high-powered weapons from being smuggled into Mexico.

In June, a U.S. Congressional report suggested some 70 percent of firearms recovered from Mexican crime scenes in 2009 and 2010 and submitted for tracing, came from the United States.

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