McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — A federal judge in South Texas has sentenced two men to prison for trafficking firearms and smuggling goods from the United States, U.S. Attorney Nicholas Ganjei said.
Esteban Rios Reyes, 35, a legal permanent resident of Silverhill, Alabama, and Alex Santos Lopez, 22, a U.S. citizen residing in Oaxaca, Mexico, both pleaded guilty to the charges.
Chief U.S. District Judge Randy Crane, of the Southern District of Texas, sentenced Santos to 90 months and Rios to serve 87 months in federal prison, Ganjei said.
Rios faces deportation after serving his term.
Both were part of an organization that exported weapons and coordinated across several states for several months, according to court testimony in McAllen.
Authorities say on Sept. 6, 2023, Santos attempted to drive a truck towing a utility trailer across the border from South Texas into Mexico. But an outbound inspection of the vehicle led to the discovery of 270 firearms, 251 firearm magazines, nine sights and 1,541 rounds of ammunition. The weapons were a combination of “assault rifles,” shotguns, pistols and rifles, many of them disassembled. All the items were individually wrapped and hidden either behind a false wall that was built into the utility trailer or inside water heaters that Rios had purchased to disguise the load.
Crane said they were both leaders in the smuggling organization and said they went to great lengths to conceal their behavior.
Officials say the pair had been smuggling firearms since 2022 and included routes through Louisiana, Alabama, Oklahoma, North Carolina and Tennessee. The goods were disassembled and wrapped and concealed in trailers in stash houses in Texas before being taken across the border into Mexico, law enforcement said.
Felipe Garcia, 36, and Angel Carreno, 25, both of Dallas, and Jose Luis Pacheco, 25, a U.S. citizen living in Guadalajara, Mexico, previously pleaded guilty to their roles in the trafficking organization and were ordered to serve 57, 57 and 54 months in federal prison, respectively, Ganjei said.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
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