EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A man tasked with procuring hundreds of high-caliber firearms for Mexico’s Northeast cartel has pleaded guilty to multiple conspiracy charges in U.S. federal court.
Prosecutors said Gerardo Rafael Perez Jr., aka Jerry, and a network of “straw buyers” under his charge illicitly obtained FNH SCAR and M2495 rifles, Barrett .50-caliber sniper rifles, M240s and M1919 machine guns from gun stores and unlicensed dealers in San Antonio and other Texas cities.
The gunrunners also acquired parts for modifying AR-15 rifles to use belt-fed ammunition so they could fire continuously at a target. Perez supervised the purchase, trafficking, and illegal export of the guns and parts to the Nuevo Laredo, Mexico-based cartel without an export license or a license to deal firearms, prosecutors said.
Perez on Thursday pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic firearms, conspiracy to straw purchase firearms, conspiracy to smuggle goods from the United States, and conspiracy to possess firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
He faces up to 25 years in federal prison.
The Northeast cartel (Cartel del Noreste) is one of six Mexican transnational criminal groups the Trump administration designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. An offshoot of a larger, once-dominant drug cartel known as Los Zetas, the Northeast cartel unleashed a three-day attack on police forces that left eight people dead and numerous vehicles burning on New Year’s Day 2020 in Nuevo Laredo.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office on Thursday released details about the investigation that led to Perez’s guilty plea. The agency said federal agents searched the cellphones of individuals hired to purchase the guns on behalf of someone else and established they were getting instructions from Perez.
One message reportedly showed Perez instructing a co-conspirator to spend $50,000 on firearms; another had him reassuring a buyer he would erase the serial numbers so the guns could not be traced to him, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
On Sept. 26, 2023, federal agents raided Perez’s home and seized multiple firearms and ammunition and jewelry with CDN logos. They allegedly found photos of purchased guns and messages to his buyers.
Perez was arrested March 20, 2024, along with alleged accomplices Antonio Osiel Casarez, Luis Matias Leal, Francisco Alejandro Benavides Jr., and Mark Anthony Trevino Jr. Three other co-defendants, Gerardo Ibarra Jr., Gerardo Corona Jr., and Jose Emigdio Q. Mendoza had been arrested in 2023. Two other alleged conspirators, Armando Mata Jr., and Felipe Vasquez III, were arrested last March.
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