Mexican Agents Charged With Smuggling Guns

Eleven Mexican law enforcement agents and one former agent were involved in conspiracies to smuggle weapons from the United States to Mexico, in some cases providing semi-automatic assault rifles to Mexican drug dealers, according to indictments unsealed in federal court Friday.

Sixteen weapons actually reached Mexico, while another 16 intended for illegal export remained in the hands of U.S. agents working on the case, investigators said. At the center of the conspiracies outlined in nine separate indictments was Interpol Products, a San Ysidro firearms store whose former owner was convicted in a similar scheme three years ago, federal investigators said.

The store’s new owner, Julio Garcia-Granados, is named in seven of the indictments, which charge him with conspiracy to illegally export firearms, sales of firearms to non-residents of California, and aiding and abetting the illegal exportation of firearms to Mexico.

Also indicted Friday was Giovanni Scolari, son of the former owner of Interpol Products. His father, Hector Scolari, and two other sons served time in prison after their convictions in the earlier conspiracy at Interpol, officials said.

Heavy-Duty Weapons

In all, the indictments charge that 16 people--four of them unidentified Mexican police agents--took part in the sales.

“These are not weapons for sporting purposes,” said James P. Stathes, head of the San Diego office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. “They are probably the most heavy-duty weapons that can be bought outside the military.”

Stathes described the guns as “paramilitary assault rifles,” adding that they are “very easy to convert to automatic weapons.”

“Most of these weapons are weapons of choice for drug trafficking,” Stathes said. “That’s why the large (drug) organizations are better armed than the military.”

The indictments were returned in November, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Laura J. Birkmeyer, but were unsealed following the arrest Thursday night of Eduardo Jiminez, a former agent of the Mexican Federal Judicial Police. Jiminez has been working for a trucking firm near El Centro, investigators said.

Jiminez is the only one of the defendants in custody. Officials conceded they are not optimistic that any of the Mexican agents will be extradited.

“We have very bad luck with that,” Stathes said.

Last February, investigators obtained a search warrant for the store and seized its sales records, Birkmeyer said. Through undercover operations and the use of informants, investigators learned that the store had been selling guns to “straw purchasers,” who were turning the weapons over to Mexican agents for use in Mexico, she said.

Lengthy Investigation

It is against federal law to export weapons without approval of the State Department.

The store, at 29 Virginia St., will remain open for a time while the federal government moves to revoke its firearms-sales license, according to Stathes. Until August, 1986, the store was located at 327 E. San Ysidro Blvd.

Investigators have been told that Garcia-Granados, the store owner, has no intention of turning himself in, Birkmeyer said. He was not at the store Friday, she said.

The indictments were the result of a lengthy joint investigation by the U.S. Customs Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Others indicted include: Mexican Federal Judicial Police agents Cesar Diaz, Jesus Garcia-Coronel, Indalecio Rios-Villanueva, Jorge Campos and three unidentified agents; Baja California State Judicial Police agents Luis Charles Garcia, Mario Enrique Cerda and one unidentified agent; Mexican Customs agent Umberto Uriarte; Alexis Perez, an employee of Interpol Products, and Roberto Vasquez Sanchez, a Mexican resident.