Man claims Mexican gunmen pushed him to smuggle machine gun

PHARR — Federal authorities arrested a 21-year-old Pharr man who allegedly tried to smuggle a machine gun into Mexico. 

A Pharr police officer stopped Julio Cesar Ramirez's in a white 2006 Hummer H3 as he attempted enter the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge, according to a criminal complaint. 

The officer said he noticed a black gun case in the back seat of the Hummer and called U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers to the scene.

Ramirez claimed he had no guns inside the vehicle, but when officers opened the case, they found a Browning .30-caliber machine gun with a tripod inside, the complaint states.

Ramirez told officers he had been threatened by unidentified gunmen in Reynosa, who threatened to harm him and his family if he failed to deliver the black case. 

Ramirez claimed he picked up the case at a McAllen convenience store and was supposed to drop it off halfway across the Pharr bridge. 

CBP turned Ramirez over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agents, who continue to investigate the case, the complaint states. Agents said Ramirez told the same story about gunmen threatening his family, but could not give any other information that would corroborate his story. 

CBP officers seized the machine gun and the Hummer.

The seized firearm, a Browning M1919A4, is a water-cooled, belt-fed machine gun first produced between 1919 and 1945. It was commonly used by the U.S. armed forces in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.