A would-be toy broker is under arrest after U.S. Customs and Border Protection found 44 rifles, a handgun and a disassembled M249 machine gun hidden inside of a trampoline box.
The incident happened Monday when Mayra Alejandro Pradron, a United States citizen born in 1990, arrived at the Hidalgo Port of Entry in a gray 2011 Chevrolet Silverado seeking entry into Mexico.
A criminal complaint said CBP officers searched the vehicle and found the weapons in the trampoline box, as well as several boxes of ammunition and magazines.
Homeland Security Investigations special agents responded and interviewed Padron, who said she was hired by a person in the United States and paid $200 to transport the vehicle from Houston to Mexico, according to the complaint.
“Padron admitted that she had transported other loads with toys and merchandise from the United States into Mexico on several occasions,” the complaint said. “She stated that she was going to start a shipping business to move merchandise from the United States into Mexico.”
However, special agents said Padron provided several conflicting versions of how she obtained the shipment.
At the interview’s start, Padron said she purchased some merchandise to take to her brother in Reynosa before saying she was taking the items to her brother’s neighbor, “Sergio,” who had asked her to take toys and two trampolines to Reynosa.
Later in the interview, the complaint said Padron revealed that an unknown person went to her house and said he was there on behalf of “Sergio” to pick up the vehicle and load it with merchandise.
“Padron admitted that she ‘felt something was not right’ because ‘Sergio’ kept on ‘pushing’ her to get the trampolines delivered quickly,” the complaint said.
She said she was paid extra to leave Houston sooner and that she would accept responsibility for “the failed operation.”
Padron was scheduled to make a first appearance Tuesday in McAllen federal court in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Nadia S. Medrano, court records indicate.
