Nashville Cop Arrested In Cancun Airport For Gun In Luggage, Sent To Mexican Jail

Cancun, MEXICO – A Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) officer on his honeymoon was arrested after he arrived at the Cancun airport with a handgun packed in his luggage.

MNPD Officer Lemandries ‘LD’ Deshun Hawes was married on July 8 and then he and his new bride, Khristian Hawes, flew to Mexico to start their honeymoon the next morning, Scoop Nashville reported.

Officer Hawes packed an unloaded, personally-owned pistol in his checked luggage and declared it to the airline when he checked his bag, according to MNPD.

But despite the fact that the airline may have made a mistake and the weapon was checked on a flight to Mexico as an oversight, it is still illegal for a non-citizen to bring a gun into that country.

When Officer Hawes’ flight landed in Cancun, he was taken into custody and booked into a Mexican jail, Scoop Nashville reported.

His wife posted to social media that it was all a big misunderstanding and that her new husband had believed he could legally bring the firearm into Mexico.

Khristian Hawes posted about the incident on her Facebook page and expressed her anger with people who thought it was funny a police officer had been arrested in a foreign country, Scoop Nashville reported.

“Since y’all find so much laughter at this !!!! AMERICAN AIRLINE APPROVED MY HUSBAND TO LEAVE THE WEAPON IN HIS CHECKED BAG AS WE WERE HEADED TO BOARD AT THE MEMPHIS AIRPORT,” the angry woman wrote.

Khristian Hawes posted that her husband hadn’t planned to bring his weapon and was calling someone to pick it up at the Memphis airport when the Memphis airport police told him that all he needed to do was fill out a form and put a lock on his suitcase.

She said the Memphis airport police did ask for their final destination and didn’t say anything about it being illegal, Scoop Nashville reported.

“Nevertheless, it is considered a federal offense to bring a gun into Mexico,” MNPD spokesperson Noelle Yazdani said.

Officer Hawes was a Memphis police officer until he transferred to the Nashville police force about a year ago, WTVF reported.

He graduated from the MNPD academy in February.

MNPD confirmed that Officer Hawes was supposed to have a hearing in Mexican court on Monday, Scoop Nashville reported.

However, no information on what happened at that hearing has been reported.

Bringing a firearm into Mexico is a federal crime and if convicted, Officer Hawes could face a standard five-year prison sentence.

On Monday night, Khristian Hawes made a Facebook post that appeared to be celebrating her husband’s impending release.

“PRAYER WARRIORS… YALL DID YOUR THING TODAY !!” she wrote.

Then she posted a picture of a heavily-redacted text that read “He’s out in 30 min.”

The Police Tribune reached out to Khristian Hawes for more information about Officer Hawes but had not heard back at publication time.