Arizona’s Tucson. After entering a guilty plea to charges of drug trafficking and firearms-related offenses, including trying to transport weapons to aid a Mexican drug trafficking organization, a 27-year-old Mesa man was sentenced last week to eight years in federal prison.
In February 2023, Nestor Hernandez-Morales acknowledged spending $26,000 on a 5.56x45mm caliber belt-fed rifle and a.50 caliber semi-automatic rifle. Prosecutors claim Hernandez-Morales intended to provide the guns to people associated with Mexican drug trafficking organizations, who would then use them to advance their illegal activities. His arrest resulted from an undercover sting operation by local and federal law enforcement that included the purchase.
Hernandez-Morales admitting to using a Beretta handgun for protection while obtaining drugs, cash, and ammo, and 6.6 kilograms of methamphetamine were found during a search of his home. In his house, authorities also discovered nine more guns.
Hernandez-Morales received a sentence of 96 months in prison and three years of supervised release from Judge Angela M. Martinez. He was found guilty of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, attempted firearm smuggling, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of narcotics trafficking.
The case was a component of the Arizona Strike Force in Tucson’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) project, which aims to dismantle transnational criminal networks and high-level drug trafficking. Numerous federal and state agencies, including the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the FBI, the ATF, the DEA, and Homeland Security Investigations, conducted the investigation.
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