Mexican man sentenced after he smuggled guns from Arizona

PHOENIX — A Mexican man was sentenced to over seven years in prison for smuggling firearms and other weapons out of Arizona, authorities said.

Jesus Angel Vasquez Balganon, 33, exported the firearms between March of 2018 and January of 2021, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona.

Authorities recovered some of those firearms in Mexico. Vasquez Balganon also exported ammunition, weapons components and accessories, prosecutors said.

How was Mexican man who smuggled guns from Arizona caught?

Authorities arrested Vasquez Balganon when he tried smuggling high-capacity magazines at the Nogales port of entry on April 6, 2021.

Exporting firearms, weapons components, magazines, ammunition and accessories like these require a valid license, which Vasquez Balganon and his co-conspirators did not have, prosecutors said.

They also had no lawful authority whatsoever to bring these items from Arizona to Mexico.

Officers with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol found a hidden shopping bag with 30 AR-15 guns with 30-round, 5.56 caliber high-capacity magazines, prosecutors said. He told officers he expected to be paid $100 for smuggling the weapons.

Prior to this arrest, he had a total of 67 firearms he had exported or tried to export. Some of these weapons included a machine gun, a Century Arms WASR rifle and an AK-103 style firearm.

In addition to that, he also was connected to smuggling or trying to smuggle 20,000 rounds of ammunition, 208 magazines and ammunition links to Mexico.

Vasquez Balganon was also guilty of money laundering, prosecutors said.

He told authorities he transferred over $20,000 from a U.S. bank to a Mexican bank from February 2019 to March 2021 to pay for the illegal smuggling.

What charges did Mexican man who smuggled guns from Arizona face?

Vasquez Balganon pleaded guilty to smuggling goods from the U.S. and international money laundering on March 14, prosecutors said.

After his 85-month prison sentence, he will also spend three years of supervised release. Additionally, the court served him a $97,229 order of forfeiture.