CIBOLA COUNTY, N.M. (KRQE) – Four inmates from the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility work crew found a loaded gun on Interstate 40 near mile marker 91 in Cibola County Thursday.
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The 9mm handgun had eight rounds in the magazine and was found hanging from a barbed wire fence, according to the New Mexico Corrections Department. The supervising corrections officer immediately secured the gun and moved the inmate work crew to the transport van.
NMCD’s Security Threat Intelligence Unit and the Cibola County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene, and the firearm was seized by the sheriff’s office.
This discovery marks the third firearm found by NMCD inmate work crews this year. On January 27, two fully loaded 9mm handguns were discovered during a routine trash pickup along Interstate 25 near the Santo Domingo exit.