The suspected leader of a firearms smuggling ring in Arizona and New Mexico has been arrested by federal agents in a law-enforcement effort to shut down a flood of high-powered weapons to Mexican drug smugglers from sellers in the United States.
Victor Varela was taken into custody Thursday by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents who also recovered .50-caliber semiautomatic rifles and several handguns intended for drug smugglers in Palomas, Mexico, just south of Columbus, N.M.
A charging document in the case said Mr. Varela and several co-defendants acted as straw purchasers in buying firearms in Arizona to be turned over to drug smugglers in Mexico.
The quick action by ATF in this investigation exemplifies our commitment to cut off the illegal flow of firearms to violent criminals in the United States and Mexico, said ATF Special Agent in Charge William Newell, who heads the agency’s Phoenix Field Division.
Authorities said that along with the seized firearms, Mr. Varela was trying to buy a fully automatic, M-60 machine gun and that a number of firearms recovered by Mexican law enforcement and military personnel in Palomas and Juarez were trafficked by his gun smuggling network.
A task force of federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies in Arizona also recently seized 200 assault-style weapons, 60,000 rounds of ammunition and $3.5 million in cash, authorities said. Those seizures included a Serbu .50 caliber sniper rifle, a Norinco SKS assault rifle, eight semiautomatic handguns, one silencer, 3,500 rounds of ammunition and weapons components.
The arrests were part of a Border Enforcement Security Task Force initiative aimed at prosecuting gang members, weapon smugglers and others.
Many of these seized weapons would have been used by organized criminal gangs against our law-enforcement partners in Mexico. By stopping them here, we are preventing these tragedies from occurring there, said Richard Crocker, deputy special agent in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Tucson, Ariz.
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