New Mexico police discover explosive device, investigate second suspicious package

Police in two New Mexico towns investigated reports of suspicious packages and located one explosive device.

Officers in Deming, a town around 35 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, responded to reports of an explosion near the adult probation center on Monday afternoon.

"Officers did locate some type of device near the entrance of the building," said Deming interim police chief Jose Montoya.

A New Mexico State Police bomb squad joined local officers at the scene.

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Montoya said state police had taken over the investigation. "We are just an assisting agency in this now," he said.

Meanwhile, police in Las Cruces, located around 60 miles east of Deming, determined that a reported suspicious package was empty.

Officers received a call reporting a suspicious package at around 8:40 a.m. on Monday. "The bomb squad and ATF determined it was an empty box at about 11:40," said City of Las Cruces public information officer Dan Trujillo.

"At this time, there is no way to determine if this callout has any definitive connection to incidents reported elsewhere in New Mexico," Las Cruces Police wrote in a press release.

The discovery of the explosive device in Deming caused the shutdown of Interstate 10 in two locations.

The magistrate court building, less than a mile from where the device was found, was also closed for the day, according to the Las Cruces Sun News, part of the USA TODAY network.