16 Indicted in Mexico Weapons-Smuggling Case
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SAN DIEGO — Sixteen people, including 11 current Mexican law enforcement agents and one former Mexican law officer, were involved in conspiracies to smuggle weapons from the United States to Mexico, in some cases providing semiautomatic 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.
“These are . . . heavy-duty weapons,” said James P. Stathes, head of the San Diego office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
The indictments were returned last November, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Laura J. Birkmeyer, but were unsealed after the arrest Thursday of Eduardo Jiminez, a former agent of the Mexican Federal Judicial Police. Jiminez is the only defendant in custody. Four of the Mexican law enforcement personnel indicted were not named.
Officials conceded that they are not optimistic that any of the Mexican agents will be extradited.
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