Thread: First defendant sentenced in N.M. gun smuggling case

First defendant sentenced in NM gun smuggling case

Posted at: 03/15/2012 12:29 PM
By: The Associated Press

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) - The first defendant in a gun smuggling case that involved the mayor, police chief and village trustee of a troubled New Mexico border town has been sentenced by a federal judge in Las Cruces.

Judge Robert Brack sentenced Vicente Carreon to 46 months in prison during a hearing Wednesday.

The Albuquerque Journal reports Brack rejected a prosecutor's request that Carreon be given a stiffer sentence.

Last summer, 14 people were charged in federal indictments involving arms smuggling to Mexican cartels. Police Chief Angelo Vega, Mayor Eddie Espinoza, and a trustee, Blas Gutierrez, were among the defendants charged.

Federal prosecutors say the defendants were part of a conspiracy in which straw buyers bought about 200 firearms from a dealer in Chaparral and sent them to Mexican drug gang members.

First defendant sentenced in NM gun smuggling case | KOB.com