Man gets 4 years in providing guns to drug cartels

The Associated Press
August 9, 2010 3:57 pm

The leader of an arms smuggling conspiracy that supplied more than 100 assault rifles and other weapons to a Mexican drug cartel has been sentenced to just under four years in prison.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says 23-year-old Alejandro Medrano of Mesa was sentenced Monday in Tucson for leading the conspiracy that involved 10 people who bought guns from dealers in Phoenix and Tucson and supplied them to the Sinaloan drug cartel.

The other nine people involved have all been sentenced to between two and four years in prison.

U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke says the case shows how illegal gun buys in Arizona are fueling the drug cartel war, and that his office is working aggressively to stop the flow of arms to Mexico.

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/crime/a ... 002e0.html