The Mexican government has charged a U.S. truck driver caught with 268,000 rounds of ammunition at a border crossing in Ciudad Juarez with smuggling military ammunition, U.S. embassy officials in Mexico said Thursday.
Bogan’s family and supporters threw a public rally for his cause recently in Dallas, petitioning the Mexican government for his release, and for help from the regional ATF office. Spokesmen for the ATF office voiced support for Bogan, citing a simple mistake, created by following directions from a border patrolman, but so far has not been validated by the Mexican office.
Jabin Bogan, 27, of Dallas, is confined to the Villa Aldama federal prison in the state of Veracruz and could face up to 35 years in prison, the embassy said in a statement. Bogan was trying to drive the truck across the border from El Paso, Texas, when Mexican customs inspectors found the assault rifle ammunition, according to authorities.
Bogan’s El Paso attorney Carlos Spector said at a news conference Wednesday that Bogan told him by phone that a Customs and Borders Protection officer told him to continue across the bridge.
“He talked to a guy in a blue uniform. That’s CBP… He was misdirected by CBP,” Spector said.
Customs spokesman Roger Maier said officers from several agencies regularly present at the port of entry wear blue uniforms.
“It could have been a security guard, El Paso Police officer, a Mexican official,” said Maier. Maier has said that CBP officers did not encounter Bogan that day.
Bogan’s boss, Dennis Mekenye, operations manager of Demco freight company, has said Bogan told him he took a wrong turn in El Paso and inadvertently crossed the border into Mexico.
Find out more about the details of this complicated and sensitive case at KWQC.