Seizure of armor-piercing ammo leads to arrest of alleged trafficker

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A woman caught driving 2,200 rounds of .50-caliber bullets to Mexico has led authorities in Arizona to the alleged operator of a stash house for drugs, migrants and ammunition.

A federal grand jury in Tucson, Arizona, last week returned a 10-count indictment against Ambrocio Ruiz Angulo, a citizen of Mexico. The indictment charges Ruiz with conspiracy to smuggle goods out of the United States, possession with intent to distribute cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, and possession of a firearm by an illegal alien.

Ruiz also was charged with re-entry of an illegal alien into the country. He had previously been deported in 2014, 2018 and 2023. He served prison time in Arizona in 2018 for felony distribution of marijuana.

According to records in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, officers with U.S. Customs and Border Protection last January stopped a vehicle trying to leave the United States through the Mariposa port of entry in Nogales, Ariz. An inspection revealed the vehicle concealed several boxes of .50-caliber ammunition typically used for a sniper rifle or machine guns. CBP tweeted a photo of green boxes of ammo seized on Jan. 20 and referred to them as armor-piercing and incendiary rounds.

The woman driving the vehicle cooperated with investigators and gave them the telephone number of the person who hired her to take the bullets to Mexico and the location of the stash house where they had been stored. Court records show investigators eventually tracked the telephone number to Ruiz and set up surveillance operations in the town of El Mirage, Arizona.

On April 11, El Mirage Police Department officers stopped a silver Hyundai with Arizona license plates driven by a U.S. citizen named Jerry Cortes. The officers found a black satchel with a stolen 9mm Smith and Wesson pistol, 30 grams of cocaine, $6,000 cash and documents belonging to Ambrocio Ruiz Angulo, court records show.

Homeland Security Investigations agents took custody of Cortes and his passenger, later identified as Ruiz. Cortes allegedly told agents he “ran point” for Ruiz while picking up drugs or unauthorized migrants from the border wall to a stash house. Cortes said the day of the arrest the two were delivering cocaine a payment for a “foot guide” or low-level migrant smuggler, records show.

In an interview with investigators, Ruiz allegedly admitted to being previously deported. A criminal complaint alleges Ruiz told HSI agents he was the caretaker of the house where the woman arrested in January had picked up the .50-caliber ammunition. He also allegedly stated he and Cortes would “run loads” of narcotics and migrants and that additional merchandise intended for illegal export was at the house.

Ruiz faces a June 21 deadline to enter a plea prior to a July 9 trial. Cortes is facing five drug counts and one count of aiding and abetting.

Records show the federal government in late April filed a motion of intent to destroy an undisclosed amount of contraband seized in connection with the case.