EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Federal agents have arrested three Texas men for allegedly purchasing high-powered firearms at gun shows on behalf of a Mexican drug cartel.
Tuesday’s arrest of Bobby Galvan, Brandon Casey Kunze and Matthew Wade Patterson are part of a wider, years-long investigation by at least three federal agencies of the purchase and illegal export of firearms from Texas to a drug trafficking organization based in Mexico.
Court documents show the Bureau of Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI identified an organizer of “straw purchases” for the cartel after illegally exported weapons were seized at the Eagle Pass, Texas, port of entry and from crime scenes in Mexico.
Documents identify the alleged firearms trafficker as Alfredo Jaimes Jaimes of Mexico. The investigation led them to the August 2023 purchase of an AK-47 style rifle by Galvan. Mexican authorities seized the 7.62-caliber rifle in Mexico a few months later.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Eagle Pass seized another 7.62-caliber rifle on May 2024 allegedly purchased by Galvan at a gun show in San Marcos, Texas.
This past July, ATF agents arrested two brothers who allegedly purchased two .50-caliber Barrett sniper rifles that allegedly would be delivered to Jaimes in Mexico. The brothers led the authorities to a home in Creedmore, Texas, where they allegedly received cash to buy guns for the cartel.
Authorities secured a search warrant and found Galvan, Kunze and Patterson on the premises, records show. Kunze allegedly told investigators that Galvan gave him thousands of dollars to pass on to the brothers so they could buy the guns.
Kunze further stated he allowed his house to be used as a stash house for firearms that would eventually be smuggled to Mexico, according to a complaint affidavit filed this week in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.
Patterson allegedly told investigators he purchased firearms for Kunze.
The search warrant executed on July 29 also yielded a ledger of drug and firearms purchases and money transaction receipts allegedly originating from Galvan.
The three suspects made an initial appearance on charges of trafficking in firearms on Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew Watters in Del Rio, Texas. A preliminary detention hearing is scheduled for August 5.
The drug trafficking organization for whom the suspects allegedly purchased the guns for was not identified in the available unsealed court documents.
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