Five men are arrested in Texas for buying weapons for a cartel in Tamaulipas

The US Attorney’s Office announced the arrest in Texas of five men accused of buying more than a hundred weapons to send them to a cartel in Tamaulipas (Mexico).

The men were identified as Gerardo Rafael Pérez Jr., alias ‘Jerry’, 23 years old; Francisco Alejandro Benavides, ‘Frankie’, 23; Mark Anthony Trevino Jr., 24; Luis Matías Leal, ‘Wicho’, 30, and Antonio Osiel Casarez, 26.

Pérez, resident of Laredo (Texas), coordinated the acquisition of more than one hundred firearms in Texas to be smuggled across the border with Mexico and delivered to a drug trafficking cartel in Nuevo Laredo (Tamaulipas), according to the accusation.

All five are charged with one count of conspiracy to traffic firearms, which carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison, and one count of conspiracy to purchase firearms with a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.

The criminal organization, composed also by three other men who had already been arrested in 2023allegedly used straw buyers, including his co-defendants.

Court documents allege that the organization would acquire guns from unlicensed dealers, or from federal firearms licensees, where straw purchasers would make false representations to secure the firearms.

Leal is accused of providing cash and instructions to facilitate the conspiracy, and Casarez is accused of smuggling the firearms into Mexico.

High-powered firearms included FNH SCAR rifles, .50 caliber Barrett, FNH M294S rifles, and M1919 rifles.

The five were named in a formal indictment filed on March 6 and were arrested last Wednesday, the Prosecutor’s Office detailed.

Pérez, Casarez, Leal and Benavides are also charged with one count of conspiracy to smuggle merchandise from the United States and one count of conspiracy to possess firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

Three other alleged accomplices who were already named in the initial indictment are José Emigdio Q. Mendoza, Gerardo Antonio Ibarra Jr. and Gerardo Corona Jr., all arrested in 2023.