I'm sure most readers have noted a news report that two Mexican nationals were arrested in Colorado after being found driving a van with 180 "boxes", each containing 1,000 rounds of NATO 7.62x51mm (i.e. .308 Winchester) ammunition. That's 180,000 rounds of ammo - rather more than the average range or hunting trip requires!
The photographs accompanying the article weren't clear on what type of van they were driving. For example:
I've bought ammo online for years, and had it delivered to my home. 1,000 rounds of 7.62x51mm. military ball ammo weighs 27-28 pounds, plus packaging: call it 30 pounds per box, to be on the safe side. That means the total cargo load in that van was about 5,400 pounds, or 2.7 US tons, plus the weight of driver, passenger(s), fuel and other baggage - probably well over 6,000 pounds in total.
I'm not aware of any standard commercial van (i.e. not a truck with a box fitted) that is rated to carry that weight of cargo. AFAIK, even the heaviest commercial vans can manage up to two tons, but not more - at least, not without affecting their handling and making them unsafe to drive in certain conditions.
So, what were our two budding ammo merchants driving, and where were they headed? I can only assume they were taking the ammo to cartel customers in Mexico. Was it linked (i.e. for use in belt-fed machine-guns) or loose (i.e. for loading into magazines)? Interested minds are curious.
Just an idle thought . . .
Peter
25 comments:
Drug smugglers used to be caught because it was obvious that their vehicles were loaded way over the capacity.
Some observations: looked up .308 on Ammoseek and it's ~about~ $0.65 per round. 180,000 x $0.65 is $117,000. Plus, ~supposedly~ they bought the van en-route, and claimed they were looking at another one, so they had a pile of cash with them. My next observation is that .308 is not "street crime" ammo (such as 9mm or maybe .223), .308 is serious stuff, typically fired out of "battle rifles", or as BRM wondered...linked for MGs, so that is very concerning, typically surviving a .30 cal rifle hit is...dicey. Again ~supposedly~ the feds have the origination & destination. I looked up gun stores in Pueblo, there are about a half dozen. Don't know if they move that kind of volume, but legit dealers don't use "Two Random Mexican Guys Shipping Services". My fears are not that it was headed back over the border, but it was intended for cells here (see comment on caliber, above). I fear that we will never get the full story, I have not seen any updates in the news. This is very concerning.
GVWR? "We don't care about no stinkin" GVWR".
This bust was a totally random event targeting two guys who looked like illegals. The stop probable cause include an out taillight. This capture was just by luck. Now if they were not illegals, is it a crime to have 180,000 rounds of ammo? Or a large amount of money on you? Think about this issue if the shtf scenarios play out. Who do you worry about, cops or banditos?
Spin
That's a VERY large amount of ammo. I have several distributors I use for my business: one of them has pallet options. A pallet of 7.62x51 is 60,000 rounds - this is 3 pallets; as Peter said I'm surprised a van would hold that much.
I've never seen a store with more than a pallet of anything in stock and I wonder if they'd actually let you buy a pallet at once, especially if you seemed sketchy... Could this be stolen ammo, from either a hijacked truck or a base somewhere?
Note that this ammo is sometimes sold in 500 round cases, so it could be only 90,000 rounds. That is still A LOT of weight.
Hmm...
Jonathan
Worst case scenario: they weren't taking it to Mexico. What if they were distributing the ammo among various cells already established in the US?
They wouldn't need to know anything more than a place to drop it and a dead drop signal to let someone know it was there l.
IF they had a C3500 van, the load rating is 4200lbs. So they were grossly overweight, which is what 'probably' led to the stop.
The attached article is "ho hum, just another day" in Mejico Lindo.
Note the photo where 3 for the guys are slinging the SCAR 17 and one guy has what looks like a Browning 1919.
https://www.borderlandbeat.com/2025/04/goem-or-grupo-de-operaciones-especiales.html?m=1
I will admit to carrying more the Gross Vehicle weight in my F150 on several occasions. Truck drives like shit but does go down the road. As stated above the droopy backside may have lead to the stop.
I've driven loaded pickups for years. The rear bumper would drag the ground with that much weight, and the photo indicates it was.
There's something fishy about the article, and if I was one to embrace conspiracies, I would think it was a planned event with an agenda.
Likely a cargo van. Relatively easy load capacity bolt on mods are available too to increase payload capacity starting with just sumo and timbren helper rubber springs...
Regardless, ford transit 350 has a 5k lb payload rating... and most ram promaster and Ford transit cargo van models have at least 4k lb payload ratings... those type of minimal safety feature vehicles are also more common in mexico, and cheaper than fully loaded vans most of the us is used to seeing.
That was my thought. It was the "Dang, that guy's riding low on his shocks" that caught the eye of law enforcement (or someone else who called it in), and the "light on the license plate was out" was the official excuse to keep from tipping off someone.
TXRed
Those headlights were pointed at the moon with all that ammo in the back.
i understood it was going from utah to colorado. the feds have been surveilling all commo out of two locations in the colorado mountains for months now. what was first thought to be muslim camps may be cartel? multiple shipments of ammo have been interdicted coming into the us lately. very concerning.
That story is too much sugar for a dime!
I had read that the reason for the traffic stop was failure to lower their high beams ... which given the way this thing was loaded might have been impossible!
Bigger question in my mind, for this one that they “caught” how many were missed and made it to the delivery point already.
TMF Bert
Just because a vehicle is not rated for a specific weight capacity doesn't mean some idiot won't load that amount of weight into it.
Looks like a '90s Dodge B350, that would have a capacity of about 4800-5000lbs based on curb weight and total allowed. So still, morbidly obese.
A Ford Transit T-350 can carry 4800 pounds of cargo. The Mercedes 3500 Sprinter is capable of carrying a 5740 lb load.
Referencing one comment above, if we start pulling over everybody who's got a droopy backside, oh boy.
One article I saw said it was 7.62...the ammo for AK47s.
So was it 7.62x51 or 7.62x39?
Considering the gun "knowledge" of the average "journalist", could be either. Or maybe .22 rimfire. Could make the weight more reasonable. If the topic is firearms, count on inaccuracy.
Carrying large amounts of cash isn't illegal Per Se, but good luck getting it back after it's been CAFed (Civil Asset Forfeitured).
If it fits, it ships!
It constitutes Probable Cause.
Reality is funny like that.
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