U.S. citizen caught at border with machine guns

San Diego Union-Tribune ^ | July 14, 2010 | Karen Kucher

[La Lydia]

A 20-year-old U.S. citizen was stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border crossing in Andrade on Saturday with two machine guns strapped to the engine of his pickup. Customs and Border Protection officers working at the crossing near Yuma, Ariz., noticed that the driver of the truck appeared nervous and stopped his vehicle for a closer inspection. When they popped the hood, they saw the guns, which were attached to the engine with plastic zip ties. They also found 680 rounds of ammunition...

Also found was two boxes of machine gun ammunition links, used to fashion an automated belt for the machine gun ammunition.

The vehicle, weapons and ammunition were seized. The driver, a resident of El Mirage, Ariz., will face criminal charges and was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Border Enforcement Security Task Force....

[La Lydia]

Well. This raises more questions than it answers. It doesn't indicate, to me at least, which way he was going. Into Mexico? Into the US? Napolitano now has CBP checking vehicles leaving our country to see if they are carrying weapons (which sort of undermines our security, I think). Anyway, what was this name? He is a "resident" of El Mirage. What does he do there?

[Seruzawa]

Lucky for him he was caught on the US side of the border rather than the other side.

[massgopguy]

What is his name? Was he an ANCHOR BABY?

[choctaw man]

“— A 20-year-old U.S. citizen was stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border crossing in Andrade on Saturday with two machine guns strapped to the engine of his pickup.”

...this scant bit of information probably tells you what his ethnicity was...

[nathanbedford]

Why is the man's ethnicity? Is he Arab-American, African-American, or Mexican-American? Maybe he is one of those pesky Amish-no not possible, there is no political correctness protecting the identity of Christians.

[Navy Patriot]

Wait,... didn’t the Aztlan President (either one or both) just tell us the machine guns were going in the opposite direction?

[Rebelbase]

So he was crossing into the US from Mexico?

[PapaBear3625]

Given that Mexican drug gangs have full-auto weapons (stolen from Mexican Army and other sources), and that there are PLENTY of gang-bangers in the US who would love the bragging rights of having full auto (hey, if it’s a felony for you to even possess a single-shot gun, might as well go for the whole enchilada).

[Disambiguator]

El Mirage is Mexi-town, USA. The guy was likely an illegal from Mexico.

[unixfox]

A 20-year-old U.S. citizen was stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border...

They had to highlight this in the very first sentence. Makes you wonder what they are hiding. Let me guess...

[hosepipe]

What kind of drug were the Customs and Border Protection officers there to escort to a safe haven for the Drug Cartels?.. They surely were NOT there to capture insurgents..

[Forty-Niner]

Two machine guns strapped to the engine with plastic ties?...... defies reason and credibility......car engines are HEAT PUMPS....plastic ties melt at tempratures much less than the operating temp of a car engine....... I stopped reading right there.....

[Charlespg]

Look at the photos at the sight.

MG 42!!

[Paladin2]

Maybe it was the intake manifold. They look a lot alike unless seen when the engine is producing high power and the exhausts tend to glow red.

[B4Ranch]

Some heat ties are very heat resistant.

[La Lydia]

The major weapons supplier to the drug cartels is Venezuela, which gets them from China. Yes, some are stolen from the Mexican military, but ole’ Hugo Chavez is doing his part to further destabilize Mexico.

[DCBryan1]

MG-42

No. MG3 (modern version in .308). Mexican military bought 10,000+ of them in 2002.

[white17x]

Is using the term “whole enchilada” considered profiling ?

[Hotmetal]

I would expect that he was coming to the U.S. because you are not checked on the U.S. side when going to Mexico by U.S customs but you might be checked on the Mexican side. I lived on the border for 5 years and was only checked one time by U.S. officials when I was going to Mexico and that was at a roadblock on the bridge and they were looking for someone. When leaving Mexico you are not checked on their side but could be checked on this side.

[snowtigger]

I think it rather obvious; the guns were coming into the US. If they were going south there would have been the usual screed about the US supplying guns to the Mexican drug cartels.