{"id":28322,"date":"2024-04-05T17:49:24","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T23:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-team-arrests-two-men-in-recent-shooting-events\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:27:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:27:05","slug":"montezuma-cortez-team-arrests-two-men-in-recent-shooting-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-team-arrests-two-men-in-recent-shooting-events\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez team arrests two men in recent \u2018shooting events\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"In
In a photo provided by the Narcotics Investigation team, an AK47 and Sig Sauer handgun were recovered in the vehicle apprehended by law enforcement on March 28. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

On Thursday, March 28, the Montezuma-Cortez Narcotics Investigation Team, Colorado Bureau of Investigations and Bureau of Indian Affairs led a criminal enforcement operation in Montezuma County, leading to the arrest of two men thought to be connected to recent shootings.<\/p>\n

The vehicle containing the two, along with three other occupants, was spotted in Cortez. Investigators and detectives working on the case requested the aid of the Cortez Police Department, Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office, Dolores County Sheriff\u2019s Office and Mancos Marshall\u2019s Office to apprehend the suspects, according to a Facebook post attributed to the Montezuma\/Cortez Narcotics Investigation team.<\/p>\n

When officers attempted to contact the vehicle through a traffic stop, the vehicle fled, striking another vehicle as it sped away.<\/p>\n

\u201cA high-speed pursuit was initiated by the suspects through the city of Cortez, through Montezuma County and into Dolores County,\u201d the team said.<\/p>\n

Once law enforcement officers stopped the vehicle, they arrested one occupant on a U.S. Marshall\u2019s warrant and the other on suspicion of various felony charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had been informed of a vehicle and suspects in this case in a white BMW that was predicted to have been involved in not just one, but two shooting incidents,\u201d Detective Sgt. Victor Galarza told The<\/em> Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Galarza would not say when or where the \u201cshooting events\u201d occurred or whether they resulted in injury or death.<\/p>\n

While Galarza said he could not share much information because of the ongoing investigation, he said the two were from Montezuma County.<\/p>\n

After a search warrant was obtained Monday, investigators found an AK47 with four magazines loaded with about 135 7.62mm caliber rounds, a 9 mm Sig Sauer semi-automatic handgun with three magazines loaded with about 60 rounds, a rifle-rated ballistic hard-plate vest and other evidence that pointed to the distribution of illegal narcotics.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn AK47 fires a round that is devastating,\u201d Galarza said. \u201cIt can penetrate body armor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Galarza said the incident was an unfortunate product of the \u201crise of violent crime that is occurring in Montezuma County.\u201d<\/p>\n

The suspects cooperated in their arrest once their vehicle was successfully stopped by law enforcement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

rifle, handgun seized after police pursuit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,168,969,28,52,60,29,51,390],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-28322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-crime","tag-drug-trafficking","tag-headlines","tag-law-enforcement","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter","tag-police","tag-shooting"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80381,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28322\/revisions\/80381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28322"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=28322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}