On Saturday, December 8th, 2012 at 9:17 p.m. a Pinal County Sheriff’s Office Deputy was patrolling the Interstate-8 corridor. The deputy observed a vehicle traveling southbound on Stanfield Road from Highway 84 leaving the town of Stanfield.

The deputy checked the vehicles registration using the computer in his vehicle and discovered it had been reported as stolen by the registered owner. The vehicle was reported to the Phoenix Police Department as stolen on December 7th, 2012.

The deputy initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle and it immediately left the roadway and began to drive through the desert in a northwesterly direction for approximately one mile. Officers from the Gila River Police Department and the Bureau of Land Management responded and assisted the deputy with tracking the vehicle. The vehicle was located abandoned in the desert.

Inside of the vehicle, deputies located 4,550 rounds of .38 caliber Super+P handgun ammunition.

Sheriff Paul Babeu stated, “38 Super ammunition is very popular in Mexico where it’s the most powerful pistol cartridge available to civilians. It is suspected that the stolen vehicle was being used as a southbound re-supply load vehicle transporting ammunition that was intended for unlawful / smuggling related purposes.”