Flung guns: Inmates find more pistols while cleaning up New Mexico highways
A total of four firearms have been found by prisoners cleaning up trash on highways across New Mexico this year — under tumbleweeds and hanging on a fence post.
Two of the handguns were discovered by inmate work crews in the past several days, one on Interstate 40 in Cibola County and another on Interstate 25 in Valencia County. They were found less than two months after inmates found two handguns alongside I-25 near the Santo Domingo Pueblo exit.
The discoveries came as the New Mexico Corrections Department has more than quadrupled the number of inmate crews and clean-ups.
In the past there was one crew doing four cleanups a week, but this year there are five crews picking up trash 22 times weekly, according to spokeswoman Brittany Roembach.
The department, in a Facebook post, said in each case the inmates reported the guns to corrections officers, and the firearms were turned over to law enforcement.
The more recent incident occurred Monday, when inmates from the Los Lunas prison found an unloaded 9mm pistol along I-25 near Los Lunas, the department said.
"The inmate who located the firearm immediately alerted the supervising corrections officer, who secured all inmates in the work vehicle," according to the post. The inmates were interviewed and searched once back at the prison.
The gun was turned over to New Mexico State Police.
Amanda Richards, a State Police spokesperson, said, "Due to its condition, it has not yet been confirmed if it was stolen."
"The gun was severely rusted and weathered, having appeared to be there for several years," she said.
The Corrections Department said days earlier, on March 13, a four-inmate work crew from a Grants prison discovered a loaded 9mm handgun "hanging from a barbed wire fence" along I-40 southeast of Grants.
"The supervising corrections officer immediately secured the firearm and ensured the safety of the inmate work crew," according to the post. The firearm was seized by the Cibola County Sheriff's Office.
"Upon their return to the facility, the inmates were thoroughly searched, resulting in no additional findings," the department said.
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