WATCH LIVE: Officials with ICE’s Homeland Securities Investigations discuss weapons trafficking operation

News conference at noon will be livestreamed in this article

FILE - In this July 8, 2019, file photo, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer looks on during an operation in Escondido, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File) (Gregory Bull, Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

(Update: The briefing is over. Please check back for more livestreams on KSAT.com).

Officials with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Securities Investigations will be in Laredo on Friday to discuss arrests made and weapons seized under Operation Without a Trace.

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Joseph Lestrange, the acting deputy assistant director of the HSI Transnational Organized Crime Division, and Timothy Tubbs, the acting special agent in charge at HSI San Antonio, will be the principal speakers at the news conference.

The news conference is slated for noon at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge in Laredo. It will be livestreamed in this article but delays are possible; if there is not a livestream available, check back at a later time.

The operation has yielded 1,143 firearms, more than 690,000 rounds of ammunition and $28 million in currency, leading to more than 400 arrests so far, ICE officials said in a news release.

“Through Operation Without a Trace, the Department of Homeland Security is taking strong action to curtail firearms trafficking,” the release said. “In partnership with the ATF and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations target the illicit purchase, transport, and distribution of firearms and disrupting and dismantling transnational criminal organizations through increased seizures, arrests, and prosecutions.”

The release states that a large part of the apprehensions and seizures come from tips.

HSI, CBP and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are asking anyone who witnesses weapon trafficking to report it to authorities.

Tips can be made online at www.ice.gov/tips or by calling 1-866-347-2423 from the U.S. and Canada, or 1-802-872-6199 from any country in the world.

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