A federal jury verdict was expected Tuesday for a New Braunfels man accused of orchestrating a scheme that funneled thousands of firearms and firearm parts from Texas into Mexico. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives scheduled a 9 a.m. news conference in San Antonio to announce the outcome of the weeklong trial of Chandler Britain Bradford.
According to KSAT, which planned to livestream the press conference, authorities were expected to announce whether Bradford is guilty of smuggling thousands of firearms and firearm parts from the United States into Mexico. Per a previous news release cited by the station, Bradford allegedly provided parts, tools and guidance that facilitated a full firearm manufacturing enterprise in northern Mexico, and he is accused of receiving more than $3.5 million from the scheme.
The case traces back to a federal grand jury in San Antonio, which returned an eight-count superseding indictment against Bradford in December 2023. Per the Department of Justice, the indictment, announced by then-U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza, charged Bradford with conspiracy to smuggle goods from the United States, conspiracy to traffic firearms, conspiracy to transfer firearms for use in a felony, four counts of aiding and abetting smuggling, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
From Licensed Dealer To Alleged Ghost-Gun Supplier
Bradford ran a federally licensed gun dealership, Center Fire Trading LLC, in Texas from January 2018 until April 2020, when he voluntarily surrendered his license, according to a report from The Truth About Guns. The outlet detailed allegations that he later supplied complete upper receivers, 80-percent lower receivers, parts kits and drill jigs — components used to build untraceable rifles without the serial numbers or background checks required at retail.
Court documents cited by the same outlet allege Bradford assembled rifle upper receivers in New Braunfels and moved components to mail centers and storage facilities in Laredo and the Rio Grande Valley. From there, the documents allege, co-conspirators repackaged the shipments for truck transport to Monterrey, Nuevo León, which served as the central assembly base for the operation. If convicted on the smuggling and money laundering conspiracy counts, Bradford faces a statutory maximum of up to 20 years in federal prison, though final sentencing would rest with a federal district judge applying advisory guidelines, per the Department of Justice.
Co-Defendants Already Sentenced In Same Ring
Bradford is not the first person charged in the alleged scheme to face federal consequences. In January 2025, prosecutors secured prison sentences for two Mexican national co-defendants: Jose Francisco Garcia-Cervantes received 57 months for transporting gun parts into Mexico, and Ricardo Rodriguez-Sotelo received 78 months for managing the Laredo storage unit used to repackage shipments, according to the Department of Justice. Federal court records also identified Bradford's brother-in-law, Troy Vernon Erbe, and a man named Jesus Guzman-Delgado as additional co-defendants accused of assisting in assembling rifle upper receivers and packaging parts, with both scheduled for trial.
Hoodline previously reported on the sentencing of those two co-defendants in January 2025. Whether Mexican law enforcement has recovered any of the roughly 4,800 assembled rifles allegedly linked to the operation, and how a jury or court might weigh the money laundering allegations tied to the $3.5 million in transfers, remain open questions not yet resolved in public court filings.
Part Of A Larger Cross-Border Pipeline
The case fits into a much larger pattern of American-sourced weapons flowing south. ATF trace data covering recoveries from 2019 through 2024 found that roughly 70 to 79 percent of crime firearms seized in Mexico and submitted for tracing originated from or were imported through the United States, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Separate federal trace analyses show that about 75 percent of U.S.-sourced crime guns recovered in Mexico come from the four border states, with Texas alone supplying roughly 40 percent of those weapons, per the Center for American Progress.
Federal prosecutors have leaned on tools created by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, enacted in June 2022, which established the first standalone federal firearm trafficking statute under 18 U.S.C. § 933 and set penalties of up to 15 years in prison for transferring firearms across borders or to prohibited individuals, according to the Federal Register. Enforcement in the same judicial district has continued into this year — in May, federal prosecutors in the Western District of Texas won a jury conviction in Del Rio against a Texas man who straw-purchased 24 AK-47 rifles for La Nueva Familia Michoacana cartel, a case the Department of Justice says was investigated by joint federal task forces.
