EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Two Mexican nationals face charges after being apprehended for allegedly firing weapons in a public area east of Phoenix.
Luis Alfonso Hernandez Felix and Jose Romario Zazueta Valenzuela were detained by U.S. Forest Service agents who noticed “a group of individuals discharging firearms recklessly into the air and ground” at Tonto National Forest, as per an October 7 complaint submitted in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.
The agents, engaged in a special multi-agency patrol, identified the suspects as they handled a Glock 9mm semi-automatic handgun and a .45-caliber pistol.
The complaint mentions that the men were “seen discharging firearms without employing a safe back-stop, placing large crowds of the public at risk as they were in the line of fire in front of Hernandez Felix and Zazueta Valenzuela.”
The Forest Service team was supported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations officers. They interrogated the men in Spanish and learned the firearms were lent by acquaintances, with neither individual having legal status in the U.S.
Agents informed Hernandez and Zazueta that shooting random targets on federal land is forbidden according to posted notices and available online information. The ERO also notified the men that individuals unlawfully residing in the U.S. are not permitted to own or use firearms.
The two face up to 10 years in prison after being charged with counts of possession of a firearm by an alien unlawfully present in the United States. They are also subject to removal from the country.
According to the Department of Justice, knowingly giving or selling a firearm to a prohibited person also is a felony. Hernandez and Zazueta said the friends they purportedly borrowed the guns from were not present, and they did not immediately identify them by name.
