Del Rio: A pair of Mexican customs agents appeared in a Del Rio federal courtroom on gun-smuggling charges.
Elizabeth Cervantes Mateos, 23, and Gily Ajin Cordova, 24, were among four people arrested Tuesday in an operation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and Maverick County sheriff’s deputies.
Acting on a tip, federal agents asked deputies to stop a Ford Explorer driven by Cervantes after watching a man filling the vehicle with boxes in an Eagle Pass parking lot, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday in Del Rio’s federal court.
Inside the Explorer, they found a .243 Winchester rifle, a Beretta 12-gauge shotgun and 1,088 rounds of ammunition, according to the complaint. Ajin was a passenger in the vehicle.
Another man agents had been following was stopped at one of the international bridges in Eagle Pass that same day and told agents the guns and ammunition in the Explorer were bound for a friend in Mexico.
An official with Mexico’s customs agency in Piedras Negras, across the border from Eagle Pass, confirmed that Cervantes and Ajin are employees there.
Also arrested Tuesday were Eduardo Hinojosa, 47, and Jose Carlos Mendoza Hernandez, 41. All face charges of smuggling goods from the U.S., which comes with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
They’ll be held without bail until a detention hearing next week.
