Two Arrested For Trying To Send Over 90 Firearms To Drug Cartel Members In Mexico

Tampa, FL –United States Legal professional Roger B. Handberg proclaims the arrests of Yuendry Rodriguez Hilario (28, Cleveland, OH) and Saleh Yusuf Saleh (24, Cleveland, OH) on a prison criticism charging conspiracy to switch firearms to commit a felony and/or drug trafficking crime; possession of firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking, unlawful switch of firearms, unlicensed firearm dealing, and conspiracy to violate federal gun legal guidelines. If convicted on all counts, every defendant faces a most sentence of life imprisonment. The defendants had been arrested in Cleveland, Ohio on March 2, 2023, and each had been not too long ago ordered detained pending the outcomes of their circumstances.

In response to the criticism, since 2021 undercover brokers with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), posing as Mexican cartel members, had been launched to Rodriguez Hilario as a trafficker of firearms that may very well be smuggled into Mexico. Undercover communications with Rodriguez Hilario and others mentioned the acquisition of AR-15s and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. One of many coconspirators described that he offered AR-15s and AK-47s to El Salvadorans and had cocaine obtainable for distribution. Rodriguez Hilario additional provided fentanyl to one of many brokers to make drugs.

Starting in late-2021, members of the conspiracy offered or organized for the sale of a minimum of 90 rifles and one Mac-10-type machine gun with a silencer to undercover brokers within the Center District of Florida and Cleveland. In November 2022, an secret agent advised Rodriguez Hilario that his associates in Mexico had been “battling and dropping” and wanted to buy extra firearms. On March 2, 2023, Rodriguez Hilario organized to ship 40 AM-15 multi-caliber firearms to the brokers. Saleh, who acquired and assembled the components to make the firearms, arrived on the assembly with Rodriguez Hilario and the brokers. After an secret agent inspected one of many containers of firearms, each Rodriguez Hilario and Saleh had been arrested. In post-arrest interviews with brokers, each admitted to trafficking firearms.

This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in collaboration with the Panama Specific Strike Power, an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Activity Power (OCDETF) comprised of brokers and analysts from the USA Coast Guard Investigative Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI), the Naval Legal Investigative Service, and U.S. Southern Command’s Joint Interagency Activity Power South. The Cleveland Division of Police, the Ohio State Freeway Patrol, the Ohio Grownup Parole Authority, and the Nice Lakes Air and Marine Department of U.S. Customs and Border Safety additionally supplied help. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level prison organizations that threaten the USA utilizing a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency strategy. Further details about the OCDETF Program might be discovered at www.justice.gov/OCDETF. It’s being prosecuted by Dan Baeza.