Erick Avila Davila was sentenced this week to two years in prison for working as a straw buyer for a gun smuggling ring that was involved in the federal government’s failed gunwalking program known as Operation Fast and Furious.
Davila pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge last summer. Davila admitted to being a straw buyer for the ring and claiming that about 12 guns he bought were for him when he was actually making the purchases on behalf of the ring.
In the Fast and Furious scheme, straw purchasers who were part of a criminal conspiracy orchestrated by Mexican drug cartels to acquire military-grade assault rifles and other high-powered weapons from Arizona gun sellers, by the U.S. government.
Davila, Danny Cruz Morones, Jamie Avila, Uriel Patino, Julio Carrillo, Alfredo Celis, Sean Christopher Steward, Jacob Wayne Chambers, Jonathan Earvin Fernandez, Dejan Hercegovac, Jacob Anthony Montelongo, Joshua David Moore, Jose Angel Polanco, Francisco Javier Ponce, and Manual Fabian-Acosta purchased or otherwise participated in the purchases of guns from various gun dealers on behalf of the cartels in later 2009 and 2010.
U.S. government agents lost track of about 1,400 weapons sold to straw buyers in Operation Fast and Furious, according to news reports.
Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered in the desert near Rio Rico, Ariz., on Dec. 14, 2010, with guns purchased in the government’s failed gun running scheme.