A traffic stop on U.S. 59 North in Victoria County turned into a seizure of 116 guns Friday, with deputies pulling them out of a single vehicle and arresting its driver on suspicion of trying to smuggle the weapons into Mexico. The haul included rifles, handguns, a shotgun, thousands of dollars in cash and a stash of ammunition magazines, according to authorities.
What Deputies Found in the Car
The Victoria County Sheriff's Office said deputies stopped the vehicle in the 9700 block of U.S. 59 North on Friday and discovered the sole occupant, 28-year-old Houston resident Edwin Aleman, traveling with a stockpile of weapons, as reported by The Victoria Advocate. The seized firearms included 102 rifles, 13 handguns and one shotgun, the sheriff's office said. Deputies also reported finding about $3,800 in cash and a large number of assorted firearm magazines inside the car.
Investigators said two of the firearms had been reported stolen out of Houston, and 26 of them allegedly had tampered identification numbers — details that, per the sheriff's office, pointed toward a larger criminal operation rather than a single legal gun owner on a road trip. The sheriff's office said a preliminary investigation found that Aleman was allegedly transporting the firearms to Mexico, though the outlet's report notes the probe remains ongoing.
Charges Against Aleman
Aleman was arrested following the seizure and booked into the Victoria County Jail, the same account states. He faces six charges: firearm smuggling, tampering with identification numbers, possession of a prohibited weapon, engaging in organized criminal activity, unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, and money laundering between $2,500 and $30,000.
The sheriff's office said the investigation into the seizure is ongoing, leaving open questions about where the firearms originated and who else may have been involved in moving them.
Part of a Broader Cross-Border Pattern
Large-scale gun trafficking cases toward Mexico have surfaced elsewhere in recent years. In one case, two Alabama men were charged with trafficking more than 300 firearms, ammunition and magazines to Mexico after authorities discovered false walls concealing weapons in their trailers at the Juarez-Lincoln Port of Entry in Laredo, according to abc3340.com. Federal authorities have pursued similar smuggling schemes in Texas before; a U.S. Department of Justice announcement described three Dallas-area men arrested on federal firearms charges tied to trafficking weapons to a Mexican drug cartel, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Separately, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detailed cases involving ammunition moved across the border in smaller, repeated shipments rather than one large seizure. In a release on a former Texas police recruit's sentencing, the agency said the man admitted he received cash in Mexico to order ammunition on approximately 30 occasions over the preceding year, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Victoria County case, by contrast, involves a single large cache seized in one stop rather than a pattern of smaller shipments.
For now, the sheriff's office has not released additional details on how the firearms were sourced or whether more arrests are expected, and the case against Aleman remains in its early stages.
