EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A California man with a history of firearm offenses has been indicted in federal court for allegedly selling methamphetamine and “ghost guns” to an undercover agent.
Miguel Resendiz on four occasions handed over or sent associates to deliver privately assembled guns without serial numbers (ghost guns) or modified for rapid fire with a single pull of the trigger (machine-gun converted), according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
Resendiz came on the radar of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives last December through a confidential informant in Escondido, Calif. The source arranged a meeting between the suspect and an ATF agent posing as a buyer.
Court records allege Resendiz sold the agent a 9mm Glock pistol equipped with a machine-gun conversion device plus a pound of methamphetamine “that had just crossed” from Mexico for $2,400. That happened on Dec. 10.
The ATF made a second gun purchase from Resendiz on Jan. 10 – a 9mm pistol assembled from parts with no serial number or registration history. The ATF refers to those illegal firearms as “ghost guns,” because their origin is untraceable.
A week later, the agent arranged to buy three firearms from Resendiz, including another 9mm “ghost gun” and two registered pistols. Resendiz allegedly sent associates to deliver the firearms at two different locations in Escondido in exchange for $2,900.
The last transaction took place Feb. 22 and involved the sale of another 9mm “ghost gun” and one pound of methamphetamine by Resendiz to the undercover agent, court documents allege. The suspect allegedly received $1,800 from the agent and, in the court-approved secretly recorded meeting, is said to have offered the agent a “discount” on future buys of methamphetamine involving five pounds or more.
A federal grand jury last week indicted Resendiz on multiple counts of dealing firearms without a license, being a felon in possession of a firearm, conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and possession of a firearm during the commission of a drug trafficking offense.
Ana Soria, Zenia Yvette Mora and Jose Vasquez Espinoza were charged with drug offenses and aiding and abetting in the commission of a crime.
According to state court records, Resendiz in 2016 was convicted in California Supreme Court on a charge of carrying a loaded firearm in public. He served 180 days in prison. In 2018, he was convicted in the same venue for being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was sentenced to 84 months in prison but it’s not clear how much of that time he served.
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