Five Men Arrested In Texas For Buying Weapons For A Tamaulipas Cartel

“Sol Prendido” for Borderland Beat 

The five men are charged with one count of conspiracy to traffic firearms, which carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.

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.

The men were identified as:

* Gerardo Rafael Pérez Jr., ‘Jerry’, 23 years old

* Francisco Alejandro Benavides, ‘Frankie’, 23 years old

* Mark Anthony Trevino Jr., 24 years old

* Luis Matías Leal, ‘Wicho’, 30 years old

* Antonio Osiel Casarez, 26 years old

Gerardo Rafael Pérez, a resident of Laredo, Texas, coordinated the acquisition of more than 100 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 indictment.

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, also made up of three other men who had already been arrested in 2023, allegedly used front buyers, including the 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.

Luis Matías Leal is accused of providing cash and instructions to facilitate the conspiracy, and Antonio Osiel Casarez, 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.

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