Four area men and another from Brownsville have been ordered to federal prison for a conspiracy to make false statements in the acquisition of firearms, announced United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson.
Martin Olivares Garza, 50, Martin Ivan Garza, 24, Christopher Steven Foreman, 24, and Ricardo Luna, 27, all of Houston, and Gabriel Kisabel Trejo-Torres, 25, of Brownsville, had all previously pleaded for their respective roles.
Today, U.S. District Judge Gray Miller ordered Olivares Garza to serve 51 months in federal prison, while Ivan Garza, Foreman, Trevor-Torres and Luna received respective sentences of 12, 13, 33 and 46 months of imprisonment.
The investigation revealed that during a six-month time period, several of these defendants and others conspired to purchase approximately 80 firearms from various gun dealers in the Houston area. In the purchases, they claimed they were the buyers of the firearms, but were actually straw purchasers for other people. The false statements were made on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) form 4473s. Straw purchasers knowingly made false statements on those farms, claiming they were purchasing for themselves when they actually purchased for others who provided monies and directed them as to which types of firearms to buy.
Ivan Garza, Foreman, Luna, Trejo-Torres and others were paid additional money to make purchases of firearms for Olivares Garza and Rosendo Padilla Jr.
The firearms included an assortment of various types of handguns and rifles. Approximately 30 of the firearms have been recovered in Mexico and an additional 11 were recovered during the investigation.
Padilla, 40, of Houston, also pleaded guilty and will be sentenced next week. Three other Houston residents – Gustavo Albano Decesaris, 25, Rebecca Andrea Villareal, 31, and Yuliana Sugey Trejo, 31 – also pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.
Olivares and Trejo-Torres are in custody. The others were permitted to remain on bond.
The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Houston Police Department, the Pasadena Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety. Assistant U.S. Attorney Glenn Cook is prosecuting the case.
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