Texas police seize 147 Mexico-bound AK-47 rifles

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico (Reuters) - Police in a Texas city just north of the Mexican border said on Wednesday they had seized 147 assault rifles apparently headed for Mexico, where tens of thousands of people have been killed by violent drug gangs.

Acting on a tip, police in the border city of Laredo stopped a truck on Saturday and found the AK-47 rifles, along with more than 200 high-capacity magazines, bayonets and 10,000 rounds of ammunition, Laredo police told reporters.

The truck driver and a passenger were arrested in what police said was the biggest weapons seizure in Laredo in a decade.

"This is one of the biggest cases we've ever seen here in this city," Laredo police officer Alberto Escobedo said. "It's a tremendous blow to drug traffickers and organized crime."

Mexico has long complained that many of the weapons used by drug smugglers at war with each other and with security forces come from the United States.

On a visit to Washington in May, Mexican President Felipe Calderon urged the U.S. Congress to reinstate a ban on assault weapons to help cut cross-border gun smuggling.

Drug violence is raging across Mexico and almost 23,000 people have been killed in the fight among cartels and with security forces since Calderon launched his army-led crackdown on drug gangs in 2006.

(Reporting by Abisai Rubio; Editing by Eric Walsh)