A Sheridan man who spent 12 years quietly amassing 124 firearms — some valued as high as $140,000 apiece — will spend a year and a half in federal prison after admitting he lied about his citizenship to buy them. Vicente Cortez Quiroz, a 37-year-old Mexican national, pleaded guilty to trafficking firearms after federal agents discovered he had purchased and received guns unlawfully from firearms dealers by falsely claiming on federal paperwork that he was a U.S. citizen.
According to court records cited by The Oregonian/OregonLive, Cortez Quiroz came to the United States in 2003 and had no prior criminal convictions. He worked full time and owns and operates Sinclairs Energy Solutions, an insulation and drywall business operating in Oregon and Washington. The outlet reports that ATF agents discovered in March 2025 that Cortez Quiroz had bought more than 70 guns from a dealer in Beaverton, Oregon, prompting a broader investigation into his purchasing history dating back years.
Federal agents raided his home with a search warrant last August, seizing more than 70 guns along with a loaded 9mm pistol found on a bedside nightstand. Investigators say he purchased and received guns unlawfully between May 16, 2023, and March 2025, though prosecutors say his overall buying spree stretched across the past 12 years and totaled 124 firearms bought in Oregon.
A Collection of Rare and Custom Firearms
The guns Cortez Quiroz accumulated were not ordinary hunting rifles or handguns. Per the same account, he collected rare and limited-production firearms, pre-war firearms, and guns featuring custom engravings, specialized grips, and gold-and-silver embellishments. Individual pieces in the collection were valued anywhere from several thousand dollars up to $140,000.
His attorney, Donovan J. Dunnion, argued in court filings that Cortez Quiroz collected Colt 1911-model .38-caliber handguns as an investment and as an inheritance for his son. Dunnion urged the court to impose a probationary sentence, contending that the offense did not involve violence, threatened violence, discharge of a firearm, or any identifiable victim.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Arin Heinz sought a lower-end sentence of one year and nine months. U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson ultimately sentenced Cortez Quiroz to a year and a half in federal prison. He is set to surrender on October 8, 2026, when he will begin his term at the Federal Bureau of Prisons, according to the report.
Property Forfeited, Bail Conditions Followed
As part of the case, Cortez Quiroz permanently forfeited a 2019 Chevrolet Camaro and a 2020 Ford F-350, along with his entire gun collection, ammunition, and accessories. Nelson had allowed him to remain out of custody after his release on December 16, 2025, and the outlet notes he complied with all conditions of pretrial release, accepted responsibility quickly, and spent nearly four months and 28 days in jail before that release.
The case fits into a wider pattern of federal firearms enforcement across Oregon. Under 18 U.S.C. § 923(g)(3), federally licensed gun dealers must submit an ATF Form 3310.4 report to the ATF National Tracing Center and local police whenever an unlicensed buyer purchases two or more handguns within five consecutive business days, a mechanism the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives uses to flag bulk purchases for investigators. That same reporting requirement is what led ATF agents to Cortez Quiroz's Beaverton gun purchases in the first place.
A DACA Legal Question Left Unresolved
Cortez Quiroz had been granted work authorization and temporary protection from deportation through March 6, 2027, under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DACA. His case echoes a 2019 ruling from U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon, who dismissed unlawful gun-possession charges against another DACA recipient in Portland after concluding that federal law prohibiting an illegally or unlawfully present alien from possessing a firearm was grievously ambiguous about whether unlawful presence refers to presence or legal status. Simon found that the man in that earlier case was not unlawfully present because deferred action is a period of stay authorized by the U.S. Attorney General, and ruled the accused could not be prosecuted for the firearm-possession offense.
That ambiguity has not been fully settled nationally. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2025, in The Reload's account of *United States v. Carbajal-Flores*, that the federal ban on firearm possession by noncitizens without lawful status is constitutional under America's historical tradition of disarming individuals who have not sworn allegiance. Separately, Simon recused himself in October 2025 from a lawsuit challenging federal troop deployment in Portland after the Justice Department cited public statements by his spouse, U.S. Representative Suzanne Bonamici, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Part of a Broader Oregon Crackdown
The Cortez Quiroz case is one of several recent Oregon prosecutions targeting noncitizens accused of falsifying federal firearms paperwork. Just weeks ago, a Medford man admitted buying 91 guns after the Department of Justice announced that Samuel Rodrigo Melo Santos, a 27-year-old Mexican national living in Medford, pleaded guilty to illegal firearm possession and making false statements after purchasing 91 guns and 40,000 rounds of ammunition across Southern Oregon between May 2024 and July 2025. In December 2025, federal authorities also charged four Mexican nationals in Oregon with illegal firearm possession after an ATF compliance audit at a Cave Junction gun dealer revealed repeated purchases of identical handgun models tied to shared local addresses, per the Department of Justice.
Under federal law, making a false statement on an ATF Form 4473 — such as falsely claiming U.S. citizenship or legal status during a firearm acquisition — is a felony carrying penalties of up to 10 years in prison and fines up to $250,000. The 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act created dedicated federal crimes for firearms trafficking and straw purchasing, with maximum penalties up to 15 years, and separately raised the statutory maximum for unlawful alien firearm possession from 10 to 15 years, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. In its Fiscal Year 2025 budget submission, the ATF reported recommending 270 trafficking charges and securing 255 charged defendants nationwide as the agency expanded dealer compliance audits like the one that ultimately caught up with Cortez Quiroz.
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