Agents Seize Rifles, Grenade Launchers Two Truckloads Of Illegal Arms Headed For Mexico, Officials Say

U.S. Customs Service agents seized from a California warehouse two truckloads of illegal arms that had entered the country through the port of Long Beach, Calif. and were headed to Mexico, investigators confirmed Friday.

The weapons included thousands of unassembled grenade launchers and M-2 carbines, which are fully automatic rifles used by generations of U.S. infantrymen.

A spokesman for the Customs Service confirmed that the shipment is believed to be one of the largest caches ever found in the United States.

John Mallamo, assistant special agent for customs in San Diego, would not comment on what ship or through which shipper the arms were transported. The agency is pursuing both foreign and domestic leads.

“We have a number of leads out nationwide as well as at some of our attache offices overseas,” he said. He declined to say which offices were participating in the investigation.

The shipment, first reported by The San Diego Union-Tribune, was packed in two containers 20 feet long, 8 feet wide and 8 feet high and was found last weekend after a warehouse worker thought the cargo looked suspicious. The worker called customs inspectors.

The shipment, which had not been inspected, moved through the Long Beach harbor and down a freeway to the Otay Mesa border crossing. For an unknown reason, it was not able to immediately enter Mexico and was taken to a warehouse.

Shipping documents listed the contents as strap hangers and hand tools.

Mallamo said ships are subject to random searches and shippers must submit documents listing ship contents.

“Unfortunately we cannot inspect each and every container,” said Mallamo. “We have to accept that what is on those documents is a representation of what is in that cargo.”

The weapons were unassembled, with some pieces absent, making it clear that some of the shipment was missing. Customs agents believe six truckloads of arms were expected, indicating that four might already have slipped through.

The discovery follows a similar seizure in San Francisco last year, when smugglers used a China Ocean Shipping Co. ship to bring in 2,000 AK-47s. However, Mallamo said any link to this shipping company was “strictly speculation.”

Coincidentally, more than 800 people filled the Long Beach City Council chamber on Wednesday to opposed leasing a closed Navy base to COSCO. Many who attended expressed fear of drug and gun smuggling.