UPDATED: Fake tattoo parlor in Las Cruces site of federal sting operation

By Ashley Meeks/Sun-News reporter
Posted: 04/16/2009 02:27:11 PM MDT

LAS CRUCES — Most customers came in to get inked or pierced at West Coast Tattoo, which billed itself as "specializing in names, cover ups, all kustom (sic), full color, "You bring, I sling.'"

But for nine months there was another kind of bring and sling going on behind the black curtains separating the lobby from the work stations, part of a multi-agency undercover investigation into illegal gun-running that involved the work of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives; Doña Ana County Metro Narcotics agents from the Doña Ana Sheriff's Office and the Las Cruces Police Department.

Since Tuesday, U.S. Marshals have taken 17 individuals into federal custody and DASO and LCPD have taken 13 into local custody; two more are expected to be taken into federal custody and two fugitives remain at large. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has identified one of the suspects as a Mexican national.

The operation was detailed at a news conference Thursday at which investigators displayed 25 of the 34 weapons undercover ATF agents were able to purchase — as well as a homemade pipe bomb made from a black-powder and screw-filled PVC pipe. While investigators believe they might have kept many of the AK47s and sawed-off shotguns from going south, to fuel drug cartel violence in Mexico, they say additional arrests of sellers who indicated they wanted to ditch the weapons because they had been used in drive-bys and other crimes are imminent.

Ashley Meeks can be reached at ameeks@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5462

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