Border Patrol Agent Charged With Smuggling Guns Into Mexico
A U.S. Border Patrol agent and his girlfriend are in federal custody charged with buying and smuggling weapons and ammunition across the border to Mexico and into the hands of violent drug traffickers.
The pair was arrested Monday after a yearlong investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms in El Paso.
A federal grand jury indicted U.S. Border Patrol Agent Ricardo Montalvo, 28, and his girl friend Carla Gonzales Ortiz, 29 on conspiracy, firearms and smuggling charges.
The 20 count indictment alleges they were ?straw purchasers? who posed as buyers but instead bought ?weapons of choice? they knew were bound for drug cartels in Mexico.
The indictment covers a three month period from November 2010 to January 2011 during which the pair allegedly bought firearms, 20 thousand rounds of ammunition and 97 high capacity magazines.
Montalvo also allegedly purchased four 37 mm flare launchers which are in high demand by drug cartels because they can be converted easily into grenade launchers.
Two licensed firearms dealers in El Paso county, Tuna?s Firearms Sales and Smitih & Werder Inc,, are listed as the places where the border patrol agent and his girl friend shopped for weapons. Both stores offer online sales and viewing of specific weapons by appointment.
When reached by phone one of the firearms dealers named in the indictment said he?d been told not to comment on the case but expressed surprise when he learned the person accused of illegally buying and smuggling the weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition is a border patrol agent.
The U.S. Border Patrol hired Montalvo in 2007 during a massive build up that doubled the force. ATF agents arrested Montalvo at work Monday afternoon at the Ysleta substation where he had been assigned to administrative duty during the yearlong investigation.
Weapons smuggling has become a hot button binational issue for the U.S. and Mexico. The controversial ATF operation known as ?Fast and Furious? that allowed smugglers to take thousands of guns into Mexico in an effort to track the weapons to higher level arms traffickers who supply drug cartels
One of those guns was used to kill Arizona Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Now, Montalvo, a fellow border patrol agent, is accused of helping arm violent drug cartels in Mexico.
Montalvo and his girl friend made their initial court appearance in El Paso Tuesday afternoon. The U.S. attorney for the District of New Mexico is prosecuting the case in El Paso to avoid a conflict of interest.
The U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas represented Montalvo in a civil suit in 2009 when an illegal immigrant accused him of intentionally running her over before he took her into custody. That case was dismissed.
Montalvo and his girlfriend will remain in federal custody on firearms trafficking charges pending the outcome of their detention hearing on Friday.
