Juarez man convicted of multiple charges connected to gun, drug smuggling

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- A federal jury just convicted 52-year-old Mexican national Rene Hernandez-Cordero of one count of possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine; one count of straw purchasing firearms; one count of trafficking in firearms; and one count of conspiracy to smuggle bulk cash.

Court documents stat that Hernandez-Cordero, a Ciudad Juarez resident involved in a smuggling organization, was caught bringing guns into Mexico and meth into the U.S.

"In August 2023, Hernandez and co-defendant Jesus Gerardo Ramos, 53, of El Paso, met at a gas station in El Paso with the purpose of obtaining 20 AK-47 type firearms and two Barrett .50 caliber rifles which would have been smuggled to Mexico," federal officials stated in a news release sent out Thursday. "Evidence produced at trial showed that this particular group smuggled hundreds of firearms from the United States into Mexico from August of 2022 to August of 2023."

There was also another co-defendant, 21-year-old Brian Alexis Munoz-Castro. Ramos and Munoz-Castro pled guilty to trafficking firearms previously, and Munoz-Castro separately pled guilty to conspiracy (meth).

Hernandez-Cordero will be scheduled August 8, 2024.