200 AK-47 Rifles Seized; 4 Alleged Smugglers Arrested

In what authorities called one of the largest weapons seizures in county history, nearly 200 semiautomatic rifles and 80,000 rounds of ammunition were seized by federal agents in Irvine and San Diego, culminating an undercover investigation of a weapons-smuggling ring, it was announced Wednesday.

The two-week investigation by Operation Alliance, a task force composed of members from the U.S. Customs Service, Drug Enforcement Administration and various state and local agencies, ended with the arrests of four men who delivered 98 Chinese-made AK-47 assault weapons, 2 handguns and about 8,000 rounds of ammunition to a customs agent posing as a representative of a drug-trafficking organization in Sinaloa, Mexico.

An additional 93 AK-47 rifles and 70,000 rounds of ammunition belonging to the four men were seized in Irvine, and will be used as evidence against the alleged exporters, agents said.

The assault rifles had a street value of $285,000, they said.

‘Significant Seizure’

Weapons smuggling “is a very high priority for customs in general. We think this is a very significant seizure,” Steve Trent, U.S. Customs agent-in-charge in San Ysidro, said Wednesday while standing in front of stacks of the weapons at a customs facility near the border.

Most of the rifles were wrapped in plastic and packaged neatly in cardboard boxes. A small instruction manual accompanied each.

“It’s the largest weapons export seizure in San Diego County that I can recall,” Trent said.

Those arrested Tuesday were identified as Enrique Gobea-Rabago, 25, a San Diego used-car salesman who is a citizen of Mexico; Adam Hahn, 25, an Irvine gun dealer; Jose Luis Rodriguez, 27, a San Diego auto mechanic, and Mario Lopez-Gutierrez, 29, an unemployed resident alien living in Chula Vista.

The men were arrested at the home of Gobea-Rabago in the 3900 block of Coleman Avenue in San Diego. Gobea-Rabago is believed to be a leader of the weapons-smuggling ring in San Diego, Trent said. The later seizure of weaponry took place at Hahn’s home in the 100 block of Streamwood in Irvine.

All four were being held Wednesday at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego on suspicion of conspiracy to illegally export firearms. If convicted, they could each be sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $1 million, agents said.