Antique artifacts found in drug raid

ROSWELL, N.M. (KRQE) - Police in southeastern New Mexico said a raid they pulled off led to multiple arrests, guns and drugs, but they also found some things they haven't seen before.

Detectives call what they found at one house during the drug raid, a rare find.  

Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the Chaves County Metro Narcotics Task Force executed federal search warrants at two Roswell homes Friday.

At one home on Del Norte, Police and Chaves County Drug Task Force agents found what they expected to find.

"They found items such as guns, they found methamphetamine, and there was also an eight-year-old boy who was found in the home as well," said Sabrina Morales, Public Information Liaison for the Roswell Police Department.

Ralph Pichardo, 31, and Joe Rodriguez, 34, were arrested on drug charges. Ralph's brother, 33-year-old Rosendo Pichardo was arrested on a federal warrant for battery.

The 8-year-old boy found inside the home was placed with the Children Youth and Families Department.

Then, at a separate home on West 14th street, the Drug Task Force found something surprising.

"Something we don't find every day, it was a lot of different ancient documents and artifacts that were also found," Morales told KRQE News 13.  

Mechlia Salazar, 29, and her father, Adan Horton, 58, were both arrested for receiving stolen property and failure to pay fines, respectively.

Police are now in the process of trying to find the rightful owners of the antique artifacts they found when Salazar and Horton were arrested. According to Morales, the items include bibles, documents dating back to the 1800's and other artifacts from other countries.

Police do not want to release too many details, because they do not want anyone making false claims of ownership.

"While looking at the documents, they do look like they should belong in a museum, they are very old and interesting documents," said Morales.

Along with the mystery antiques, police seized multiple guns from both homes, including an assault weapon that detectives said is similar to an SKS rifle.  

Roswell Police are hoping the rightful owner of the mystery artifacts will come forward with a good description so they can return the items.