BEST team arrests 2 men who allegedly tried to smuggle guns into Mexico

ICE.GOV - News Release ^ | April 14, 2009 | n/a

[Cindy]

Note: The following text is a quote:

April 14, 2009

BEST team arrests 2 men who allegedly tried to smuggle guns into Mexico Mexican nationals were willing to pay $2 million for cache of automatic weapons

El Paso, Texas - Two men were arrested April 11 by members of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-led (ICE) Border Security Enforcement Task Force (BEST) after they tried to buy automatic weapons and ammunition to smuggle into Mexico.

In December 2008, the El Paso Police Department provided information to BEST team members that led to a joint investigation and resulted in the arrests. Las Cruces Police Department and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' (ATF) Las Cruces office also participated in the case.

Osvaldo Tostado-Gonzalez, 31, and Gabriel Gonzalez-Gonzalez, 38, both of Guadalajara, Mexico, were arrested after they arrived in El Paso to negotiate the final payment for a cache of firearms they intended to illegally export to Mexico, according to a criminal complaint.

The two men met with undercover agents Dec. 20 to provide a detailed list of automatic firearms and ammunition they wanted to buy. The weapons and ammunition were valued at about $2 million. BEST agents and El Paso police detectives seized $148,045 in cash Jan. 29 that Tostado-Gonzalez and Gonzalez-Gonzalez provided as a down payment for the weapons they planned to buy.

Among the weapons on their list were: 300 AR-15 or AR-16 rifles, 300 short-barreled .223 rifles, 10 Barrett .50-caliber rifles, two 40-millimeter grenade machineguns, 10 .45-caliber handguns with silencers, 10 .40-caliber handguns with silencers, and a large amount of ammunition of various calibers.

According to a criminal complaint, both men met with undercover agents in February and March and inspected the firearms they planned to buy.

"The success of BEST is due to the seamless cooperation among federal and local law enforcement agencies, and the sharing of intelligence and information about criminal activity that threatens border security," said Manuel Oyola-Torres, acting special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in El Paso. "This partnership is a force multiplier that makes our ICE efforts that much more effective against criminal organizations."

Tostado-Gonzalez and Gonzalez-Gonzalez made their initial appearance in federal court Monday. Their detention hearing is set for 10 a.m. April 16 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Norbert J. Garney.

ICE is charged with enforcing a wide array of laws, including those related to securing the border and combating criminal smuggling. BEST members routinely conduct joint operations with other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, which join forces and authority at the ports of entry, to prevent U.S. currency, weapons and technology from being illegally exported into Mexico.

BEST is a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ICE-led national initiative created along the U.S.-Mexico border. BEST in El Paso was formed in October 2006, and is one of 15 such teams nationwide.

El Paso's BEST members include: ICE; U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Border Patrol and Office of Field Operations; the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); the U.S. Department of State; the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); the El Paso County Sheriff's Office; the El Paso Police Department, and the U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Texas.

Officers from federal, state and local law enforcement agencies are collocated in the task force to share information. This close coordination among law enforcement agencies also helps identify and eliminate cross-border criminal organizations, such as drug and alien smuggling networks, and their supporting infrastructures that sustain them.

-- ICE --

[ForeignDude]

Well, if HK makes it, then we KNOW civilians don’t have ‘em.

HK: You Suck, and We Hate You!

[Spktyr]

It’s not HK’s fault that 99% of their semiauto rifle line is banned from importation into the US...

[Spktyr]

Plastic explosive formed into shaped charges buried in the street or under faux manhole covers.

Like an IED, but unlike most of the Iraqi IEDs, not built by idiots and not relying on masses of explosive.

Failing that, something to blow the tracks off.

[bruoz]

"Never mind the fact that the 40mm grenade launchers have *never* been sold to civilians ever...."

You can buy a M79 or a M203 (single shot) grenade launcher from any Class III FFL with a DD (destructive device) license if you can get the ATF Form 3 (tax paid transfer) signed off by your chief LEO and your state laws allow it. Another way is to buy the receiver only on a 4473 (firearm transfer) and then activate it by installing the 40mm barrel which requires a Form 1 (making a NFA weapon). It will cost you a $200.00 federal transfer or making tax on top of the purchase price in either case. 40mm "practice" ammo is no problem getting ($$$) but the HE ammo (grenades) are DDs themselves and require a Form 3 and $200.00 tax per round.

[MarkL]

two 40-millimeter grenade machineguns,

Wake me up when they start making those. - I want a 40-millimeter grenade machinegun...

Mk.19 Automatic Grenade Launcher. Belt fed, fires 40mm grenades.

Of course, this article was written by the media, so we have no idea if this is correct or not, but there is such a thing... They're quite nifty! Of course, this isn't the sort of thing you can buy at a typical gun show or store. In fact, they conveniently leave out the fact that NONE of these weapons are commonly available at gun stores or for purchase by civilians.

Mark

[MarkL]

I’ve never heard of an M-16 referred to as an “AR-16 rifle”.

It's more powerful than an AR-15. Sort of like being able to turn the volume up to "11."

Mark

[MarkL]

Wow. I want one.

It would be nice, wouldn't it? But unless you can find one that was licensed to a civilian before 1986, you'll never be able to own one legally. Besides the fact that it's considered a destructive device by the ATF (and I think it may also be classified as modern artillery, due to the 40mm bore), the fact that it's an automatic weapon means that any manufactured after 1986 can't be licensed to a civilian.

Mark

[MarkL]

It’s not HK’s fault that 99% of their semiauto rifle line is banned from importation into the US...

I've long dreamed of a matching pair of HK-91 and HK-93s.

Mark

[bill1952]

I will gladly settle for a semi :^D but for the reasons that you stated, I doubt that we are going to have access to any.

At what point does a weapon become illegal?
Are cannons and such allowed?

[DHC-2]

They make them, it is a military only item...

So how do you get a "military only" item to smuggle into Mexico? You would need help from the GOVERMENT. You don't suppose the GOVERNMENT is leaking these weapons so they can be caught at the border ... therefore giving fuel and excuses for more gun control in the USA? (I wouldn't put them past it).

[Texas resident]

This story really smells like a set up. Never forget, the press is in full cahoots with the dims in charge now and have the same agenda. The whole theory that the mexican cartels are being armed by US federally controlled gun stores in Texas and Arizona is complete bovine remains. Connect the dots. This is so well coordinated. Pelosi just announced that she dosn’t want to take our firearms, just to register them. Home land security is sending agents to Houston to look for illegal gun dealers that are “arming the Mexican gangs”. The press has been reporting on stories of shootings just before all this happens. (Pittstburgh, New York State (Wait, guns are strictly controlled in New York State, how could that happen?)). What really infuriates me is that while Mexico is collapsing and the real threat of millions of refugees coming over the border, OUR country is trying to disarm us. I suppose you will have a cop/federale on every street? Yeah right, they will be pointing their arms at us because we are a bunch of right wing extremists. (Another coordinated point). I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK. MY CHILDREN DO NOT DESERVE THIS.

[Smokin' Joe]

I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK. MY CHILDREN DO NOT DESERVE THIS.

Sure it is a set-up. It is carefully choreographed to try to sway the ignorant among us with a relentless barrage of 'eeevil guns', slaughter in the streets, and even somehow the nutcase idea that American gunowners are responsible for the carnage in Mexico.

The latter is a hoot, because it was the US Government offering to sell arms to Mexicans (drug lords??) that Americans can't even own.

Only the ignorant will fall for this, the rest of the population is fuming.

Hopefully, the proportion of ignorant people here is not as bad as the results of the last election would have one believe.

[takenoprisoner]

“What I DO have a problem with is the idea that this will be brayed as one more excuse to attempt to ban the paltry rifles we can buy, because it will be used as “evidence” that Mexicans are smuggling in arms from the US. “

If the Mexicans are crossing the border to buy guns, apparently they don’t have a network or a clue where to buy them. Since if they did, they would not have been busted by ICE for attempting to buy them from undercover agents.

The question is, for whom were the alleged Mexicans working? For all we know, this could be two different sting ops by two different agencies, both looking for a border gun bust. Oh yea, it happens.

[El Laton Caliente]

This was Federal Law Enfourcement borrowing arms from the Military as bait for Mexican Arms Buyer... Now the Administration and Reporters are spinning it...

Those arms were never available to the public.

[MarkL]

At what point does a weapon become illegal? Are cannons and such allowed?

I know that "historical" artillery is legal, like muzzle loading cannons used in civil war demonstrations. I believe that the maximum bore size for "modern" firearms and such is 20mm. Of course, I could be wrong, but I do know that you used to be able to legally buy 20mm anti-tank "rifles."

Mark

[from occupied ga]

Each HE round would also require a $200 tax stamp.

[Smokin' Joe]

For all we know, this could be two different sting ops by two different agencies, both looking for a border gun bust. Oh yea, it happens

Yes, it does. A friend in High School, long long ago and far away, went to a party, and got a bad 'vibe'. He went to the can and out the window. When the 'big bust' went down, he was the only one (no longer) in the room who was not a narc.

[Southack]

Anyone trying to sell you a machine gun without an FFA+tax stamp is a Fed trying to bust you into hardcore prison.

It’s like the new White guy who walks into our militia meetings...he’s always the one who wants to go bomb a Federal building instead of simply smoking cigars and drinking Shine with the rest of us (”Hey, we’re on patrol!”).

Always a Fed.

Time and again the *same* traps from the same agents or their new replacements.

You see, too many people are *obeying* the law. To end that problem, the Feds need traps.

[SwinneySwitch]

Ping!

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