Major ammunition bust made in Arizona: Cochise County Sheriff's Office

Authorities in Cochise County released details on Jan. 19 surrounding a major bust involving ammunition.

The bust, according to officials, was made in mid-January as part of a multi-agency effort.

"These people were arrested. It took a lot of work," said Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels.

Bust involved tens of thousands of bullets

Per a statement made to the Cochise County Sheriff's Office Facebook page, the busts involved two cars that were headed east on Interstate 10 from the Phoenix area.

What we know:

According to the statement, crews seized 10,000 rounds of .50 caliber ammunition, and 19,640 rounds of 7.62x39 ammunition.

Officials identified the people in the two vehicles as three asylum seekers, one of whom is from Cuba, and an American citizen out of Texas.

What they're saying:

"The vehicle containing the 7.62x39 ammunition was interdicted by the Pinal County Sheriff’s office. Still, the second vehicle containing the .50 caliber ammunition was located by CNTA investigators at Motel 6 in Benson," officials with CCSO wrote.

"One thing for sure is that U.S. ammunition is a massively sought commodity in Mexico. It is priceless," said Bernard Zapor, a returned ATF Special Agent In Charge who is currently a faculty member of Arizona State University.

Zapor said the busts have the hallmarks of the cartels.

"There's a couple of things that are very interesting about this: the way that it was being transported, it wasn't concealed from the photographs of the arrests. It was very blatantly just stored in an SUV, which indicates to me that they probably had the crossing into Mexico completely arranged," Zapor said.

What's next:

Cochise County officials say an investigation is ongoing, and it is being led by Homeland Security Investigations and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

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