Luis Enrique Beltran-Beltran, of Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to unlawfully export and aiding and abetting the unlawful possession of machine guns, grenades, and grenade launchers. He was sentenced this week to 120 months’ imprisonment.
Beltran, age 41, had been extradited from Mexico to the United States in 2017.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives agents received information in 2011 that Beltran was trafficking military-grade weapons from the U.S. into Mexico.
Beltran sought to buy and smuggle up to 10 machine guns with attached grenade launchers and 50 grenades each week. Beltran, who orchestrated his criminal activity from Mexico, also directed several other co-conspirators to smuggle over 50,000 rounds of ammunition and hundreds of high-capacity ammunition magazines.
In sentencing him to the maximum sentence allowed by law, the judge cited the severity of Beltran’s crimes and his role as a leader of an extensive weapons-trafficking conspiracy.