Nevada Man Pleads Guilty to Supplying Cartels with Heavy Weapons

A man from Nevada stood before a judge Friday and pleaded guilty to buying high-powered weapons for sale to drug cartels in Mexico. He also admitted to laundering money and hiring workers illegally inside this country, according to Department of Justice officials. Luis Alberto Osorio worked with others between April 2020 and last September to procure 140 firearms, magazines, and bullets. These items were meant for people linked to violent Mexican drug-trafficking groups who would sell them across the border for profit.

Court documents list specific heavy weaponry involved in this scheme. The cache included the Ohio Ordnance Works M2-SLR .50 BMG rifle. It also featured the Barrett M82A1 and M107A1 antimaterial rifles, both chambered in .50 BMG. Agents seized FN Herstal M249S 5.56x45mm machine guns as well. The list concluded with FH Herstal SCAR 17S 7.62x51mm rifles. Osorio added that he employed unauthorized workers at a mining company in Nevada during this time.

Border agents uncovered an RPG launcher and a large stash of rifles hidden inside a vehicle heading south. Osorio, who lives in Elko, faces one count of straw purchasing firearms. He also admitted to trafficking weapons, harboring certain aliens, and conspiring to launder money. If found guilty on every charge, he could face up to 70 years behind bars.

"Firearms trafficking networks feed the violent cartels that terrorize border communities and pump illicit drugs into our neighborhoods," said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah for the District of Nevada. She explained that cutting off this supply chain directly disrupts dangerous criminal organizations. Jonathan Sherwin, deputy special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations Las Vegas, added his own perspective. "Trafficking military-style firearms and ammunition to drug trafficking organizations in Mexico fuels violence," he stated. He noted that the guilty plea resulted from relentless work by HSI and federal partners.

This case belongs to a Homeland Security Task Force initiative launched last year. President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating this group on his first day in office. David S. Olesky, special agent in charge of the DEA Los Angeles Field Division which covers Nevada, emphasized the connection between guns and drugs. "In the world of organized crime and drug trafficking, guns and drugs go hand-in-hand," he said. He promised that all agency resources would be used to hold accountable those threatening public safety through weapon and drug trafficking.

Osorio's sentencing is scheduled for February. The plea deal marks a significant step in breaking up these transnational criminal networks. Authorities say their goal remains stopping the flow of weapons that empower violence on both sides of the border.