Men arrested while hauling 180,000 rounds of ammo from Utah into Colorado

CBS News

19-04-2025

Two residents of Mexico were recently arrested in Colorado while transporting 180,000 rounds of large-caliber ammunition. They were pulled over after driving toward deputies and failing to dim their van's headlights.
Two Fremont County detectives were driving on State Highway 50 in Cañon City on March 26, according to a federal arrest affidavit. The van was coming in the opposite direction and left its headlights on the highest setting as it passed the deputies' vehicle. It is against Colorado state law for a driver to fail to dim his or her vehicle's headlights when there is oncoming traffic within 500 feet of it.
The detectives followed the white GMC passenger van to a gas station and pulled in behind it.
Both men inside the van - Caesar Ramon Martinez Solis, 41, and Humberto Ivan Amador Gavira, 24, both of Mexico - presented United States Visas as their forms of identification.
Detectives asked to search the van. Martinez Solis, the driver, gave permission. Inside the cargo compartment, the detectives found approximately 150 boxes of .308-caliber ammunition and approximately 30 boxes of 7.62 ammunition. Each box was labeled as containing 1,000 rounds.
Neither man's documentation permitted them to be possession of weapons or ammunition, even for hunting or sporting purposes, according to the federal affidavit.
The Fremont County Sheriff's Office then detained both men and contacted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.
The two men were subsequently interviewed by ICE agents and others from the Denver offices of the U.S. Homeland Security and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. Martinez Solis told them that he and his brother-in-law, Amador Gavira, entered the U.S. the day before. They traveled to Denver, bought the van there, then drove to Salt Lake City and purchased the ammunition from a store, as recounted in the affidavit.
Neither man's visas allowed them to transport ammunition or firearms across state lines.
Martinez Solis told investigators the ammunition was, to the best of his knowledge, destined for Pueblo.
Both men were charged Wednesday by federal prosecutors with Unlawful Possession of Ammunition by Alien Admitted Under a Nonimmigrant Visa.
The case is part of Operation Take Back America. In a press release announcing the charges, federal prosecutors called it "a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime."
The men are being prosecuted in Denver by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado. They are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.