New Mexico ballistics network generates leads in more than 500 criminal incidents
New Mexico’s expanded NIBIN ballistics network has generated leads in more than 527 criminal incidents, including two Roswell homicide investigations, according to state officials.
Statewide NIBIN system, including a machine at the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office, has processed more than 2,000 ballistic acquisitions and helped investigators connect a firearm to two Roswell homicides
Damien Willis, Organ Mountain News
LAS CRUCES - A statewide ballistics network that includes a machine at the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office has now processed more than 2,000 ballistic acquisitions and generated leads in more than 527 criminal incidents across New Mexico.
According to figures cited Friday by U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., 41% of those incidents have resulted in an arrest. Heinrich secured more than $1 million through the fiscal year 2024 appropriations process for four additional National Integrated Ballistic Information Network machines serving Roswell, Doña Ana County, Farmington and Gallup.
The expansion moved the technology beyond Albuquerque and Santa Fe and created additional regional access points for agencies submitting ballistic evidence.
NIBIN uses high-resolution imaging to analyze markings left on spent cartridge casings and compare them with evidence recovered in other investigations. Those comparisons can help investigators identify links among firearms, shootings and suspects across jurisdictional boundaries.
The New Mexico Department of Justice’s Crime Gun Intelligence Center analyzes evidence entered into the network and sends investigative leads back to law enforcement agencies.
A network expanding quickly
When Organ Mountain News reported on the Doña Ana County rollout in April, participating agencies had entered more than 250 ballistic samples statewide. Those entries had linked 10 firearms to 24 separate shooting incidents.
Damien Willis
The machine installed at the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office was intended to serve as a regional resource, allowing surrounding agencies to submit evidence for analysis. Sheriff Kim Stewart said at the time that deputies had already used the technology in a homicide investigation that resulted in an arrest within four days.
Five months later, the statewide numbers are substantially larger.
Heinrich’s office said the Crime Gun Intelligence Center has processed more than 2,000 ballistic acquisitions and generated leads in more than 527 criminal incidents since the new machines were installed. Heinrich highlighted those figures Friday as evidence that the federal investment is producing results.
The numbers provide one measure of how quickly the network has grown since the Doña Ana County system came online this spring.
A Roswell case connection
One recent Roswell investigation shows how those ballistic links can develop into a lead.
The New Mexico Department of Justice said Sept. 2 that its Crime Gun Intelligence Center generated a lead that helped Roswell police connect a firearm recovered from the home of Sean Michael Caraska, 37, to the killings of Andrew Lujan-Huerta, 46, and Karl Affsprung, 59. Caraska was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
Lujan-Huerta and Affsprung were among three homicide victims included in an August appeal for information from the FBI and local law enforcement. At the time, authorities grouped the three investigations together but did not explicitly say they were connected.
Organ Mountain News
The Justice Department later said ballistic evidence from the killings of Lujan-Huerta and Affsprung was connected to a firearm recovered during a search of Caraska’s home.
The department said Sept. 2 that more than 700 firearms had been entered into NIBIN statewide and projected that figure would approach 2,000 by early winter. That figure counts firearms entered into the network and is distinct from the more than 2,000 ballistic acquisitions reported by Heinrich’s office this month.
Before the expansion, agencies in some parts of New Mexico had to transport ballistic evidence to Albuquerque or Santa Fe for processing. The four additional machines were intended to shorten that process while feeding evidence into the same statewide intelligence network.
For southern New Mexico, that network now includes the machine at the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office, giving local and regional investigators direct access to a system that state officials say is producing hundreds of investigative leads statewide.
Damien Willis is founder and editor of Organ Mountain News. If you have a personal story to share or a lead we should follow up on, reach out at OrganMountainNews@gmail.com or connect with him on X at @damienwillis.
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