A convicted felon from New Mexico has been sentenced to federal prison for stealing firearms in El Paso, according to an announcement from federal prosecutors. The case was publicized Thursday on social media, where officials tagged two law enforcement partners who assisted in the matter.
Office Confirms Sentencing, Few Details Released
The sentencing was announced in a post from the U.S. Attorney WDTX
, the official account of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas, which is based in San Antonio. The post’s headline read simply, “New Mexico Felon Sentenced to Federal Prison for Stealing Firearms in El Paso,” and the office tagged both ATF Dallas and El Paso Police in the announcement, signaling their roles in the underlying investigation.
El Paso has seen a string of federal firearms-theft prosecutions in recent years.
A Pattern of Federal Gun-Theft Cases in the Region
Federal authorities in the region have pursued multiple unrelated gun-theft and trafficking cases over the years. In 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice, District of New Mexico announced that Emanuel Medina, then 24 and from El Paso, was sentenced in federal court in Las Cruces to 46 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release for unlawful possession of stolen firearms.
In 2020, a federal criminal complaint filed in El Paso alleged that Ruben Orona, 37, and Victor Medina, 32, were responsible for a string of gun store burglaries — one in Las Cruces and two in El Paso — in which 32 firearms were stolen, according to the Department of Justice, Western District of Texas. Two years later, the same office announced that a New Mexico woman was sentenced to 50 months in prison for her role in a scheme to purchase firearms in West Texas and Southern New Mexico before exporting them into Mexico.
Other Firearms Sentences Across Texas
Firearms-related sentencing has remained a steady feature of federal dockets in Texas. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives previously reported that an El Paso man was sentenced to 41 months in prison for dealing firearms without a license. In Del Rio, the Department of Justice, Western District of Texas announced that Alfredo Martinez Jr. was sentenced to 180 months in federal prison in September 2026 for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Similar cases have surfaced outside Texas as well. In Iowa, a 19-year-old Waterloo man, Da’Tellyon Dawon Nix, was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison after pleading guilty on June 24 to possessing a firearm as a felon, according to CBS2 Iowa. The outlet reported that the gun Nix possessed had been stolen from a federally licensed firearms dealer, and that he was sentenced Nov. 3 in Cedar Rapids and must serve three years of supervised release after his prison term.
No further details on the El Paso sentencing announced Thursday have been made public beyond the headline shared by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Hoodline will update this story if additional information becomes available.
