Federal prosecutors say a Fayetteville husband and wife have admitted helping funnel guns bought in Georgia toward Mexico, a pipeline that ended with several weapons seized at the Del Rio port of entry in Texas. The case traces back to a burst of gun purchases last August and to surveillance footage that prosecutors say caught the wife firing a weapon at a Fayette County shooting range.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia, on Aug. 8, 2025, Steven Estrada Feregrino handed another woman $4,600 to buy seven firearms at a Fayetteville gun store. Prosecutors say those guns were turned over to Estrada and Miguel Angela Varela-Posas and were recovered less than a week later at the Del Rio, Texas, port of entry inside a van headed for Mexico. About two months after the purchases, surveillance video from a Fayette County range shows Brenda Rojano-Gonzalez handling and firing a gun, according to prosecutors, who charged her with possession of a firearm while prohibited.
Prosecutors' statement
"Illegal aliens are strictly prohibited from possessing weapons in our country," U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said in the press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia. He noted that federal law also bars lawful residents from lying to grease the wheels of illegal gun trafficking. Prosecutors say the investigation pulled in the Atlanta Homeland Security Task Force, as well as agents from ATF, Homeland Security Investigations and the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security.
Charges and court dates
As reported by FOX 5 Atlanta, 26-year-old Brenda Rojano-Gonzalez pleaded guilty on March 11 to possessing a firearm while prohibited and is scheduled for sentencing on June 11. Her husband, 29-year-old Steven Estrada Feregrino, entered guilty pleas on May 11 to perjury and making false statements to a federally licensed firearms dealer, with sentencing set for Aug. 14. Federal prosecutors have also secured indictments against 30-year-old Miguel Angela Varela-Posas of Puebla, Mexico, on multiple counts; he remains presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty in court.
Why this matters
According to a Government Accountability Office review of ATF tracing data, trafficking firearms into Mexico has long dogged U.S. enforcement agencies and has exposed gaps in how those agencies coordinate. The report notes that weaknesses in tracing and joint planning can make it harder to intercept diverted guns before they cross the border, and prosecutors say multiagency task forces are one of the tools meant to tighten those seams.
Where this fits locally
This case adds to a growing list of local and regional investigations into southbound and interstate gun diversion. In 2022, ATF agents and local reporting connected hundreds of firearms bought in Georgia to crime guns recovered in Philadelphia. For Fayetteville, the current case means two residents are awaiting sentencing, with dates set for June 11 and Aug. 14, and prosecutors say the broader investigation is still active.
