A member of the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas who was living illegally in the border city of Laredo received a five-year, three-month prison sentence for illegally buying ammunition in large quantities. The ammo was eventually going to be smuggled to Mexico.
This week, 20-year-old Charbel Garza Macias appeared before U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo, who sentenced him to 63 months in federal prison. According to information provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas, Garza Macias pleaded guilty to the charge of illegal possession of ammunition on October 8, 2024. Since he was not in the country legally after his sentence is concluded, Garza Macias will likely face deportation to Mexico.
According to prosecutors, Garza Macias was hired to purchase more than 20,000 rounds of ammunition for the CDN-Los Zetas cartel. The ammunition was to be smuggled into Mexico at a later date. On July 16, 2024, agents with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) carried out a surveillance operation and observed Macias load approximately 5,000 rounds of ammunition into the trunk of his vehicle.
The man tried to drive away and was trying to elude authorities, but the agents carried out a traffic stop on the vehicle. A search led to the discovery of the ammunition. Since Garza Macias did not have legal status in the country, he could not legally be in possession of the ammunition. Once in custody, he told authorities that he was getting the ammunition for the CDN-Los Zetas in Nuevo Laredo.
As Breitbart Texas reported, the CDN-Los Zetas can operate with almost complete impunity in Nuevo Laredo, where they can patrol the city in convoys of armored vehicles full of gunmen.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with the Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
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