In Nevada, a local man has confessed to buying arsenal-grade firearms and bullets destined for Mexican drug cartels, while also admitting to laundering money and unlawfully employing individuals in the U.S., as announced by the Justice Department.
Luis Alberto Osorio was involved with collaborators from April 2020 until last September, orchestrating the acquisition of 140 firearms, magazines, and ammunition on behalf of notorious Mexican cartel operatives. These weapons were intended to be smuggled across the border for profit, highlighted the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Nevada.
The weapons cache included formidable, long-range firearms like the Ohio Ordnance Works M2-SLR .50 BMG, Barrett M82A1 and M107A1 .50 BMG anti-material rifles, and other powerful guns such as the FN Herstal M249S 5.56x45mm and the FN Herstal SCAR 17S 7.62x51mm rifles, detailed in the court papers.
Osorio further confessed to recruiting unauthorized workers for a mining enterprise in Nevada, acknowledging this breach of employment laws.
With charges anchored in conspiracy, Osorio and his co-defendants engaged in the arms trade from April 2020 to September of the following year, supplying armaments to individuals linked with Mexico’s violent drug cartels, as indicated by court documents. (Getty Images, File)
Osorio, of Elko, pleaded guilty to one count of straw purchasing of firearms; one count of trafficking in firearms; one count of harboring certain aliens; and one count of conspiracy to launder money.
He faces a maximum of 70 years in prison if found guilty on all counts.
“Firearms trafficking networks feed the violent cartels that terrorize border communities and pump illicit drugs into our neighborhoods,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah for the District of Nevada said in a statement. “By cutting off this supply chain and holding this defendant accountable, we are directly disrupting the operational capabilities of these dangerous criminal organizations.”
Osario’s sentencing is scheduled for February.
“Trafficking military-style firearms and ammunition to drug trafficking organizations in Mexico fuels violence, strengthens criminal networks and threatens communities on both sides of the border,” said Jonathan Sherwin, deputy special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Las Vegas. “This guilty plea is the result of relentless work by HSI and the Homeland Security Task Force and our federal, state and local partners to disrupt the flow of weapons, money and criminal support that allows these organizations to operate.”
A burned truck is seen as members of the Civil Guard of Michoacan patrol a highway after a wave of cartel violence in Aguililla, Mexico. (AFP via Getty Images, File)
The case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative, which was created by an executive order President Donald Trump signed on his first day in office last year.
“In the world of organized crime and drug trafficking, guns and drugs go hand-in-hand,” David S. Olesky, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration Los Angeles Field Division, which covers Nevada, said in a statement.
“As a member of the Homeland Security Task Force, DEA and our partners will bring to bear all resources and draw on the full scope of our agencies’ expertise to hold accountable those individuals and organizations which pose a public health and safety threat to our communities through the trafficking of drugs and firearms.”