By Logan Smith | CBS News Colorado
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.