Brazilian National Convicted for Scheme to Smuggle Machine Gun Parts from the United States to Brazil

MIAMI – A Brazilian national was found guilty by a federal jury for his role in a scheme to smuggle firearm parts capable of being assembled into fully automatic assault rifles from the U.S. to Brazil.

According to court records and evidence presented at trial, Victor Waldeck Oliveira Iglesias, 31, conspired with co-defendant Alvaro Teixeira, 50, to smuggle eight sets of HK firearm parts to Brazil. The co-defendants planned to conceal the illegal gun parts inside shipments that were otherwise legally licensed for export. Evidence at trial showed that Iglesias and Teixeira intended to smuggle many more firearm parts kit if the scheme had succeeded.

“This case involved an effort to secretly move machine gun components out of the United States and into the international black market,” said U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida. “The evidence at trial showed that the defendants planned to conceal these parts inside legitimate export shipments and send them overseas, where they could be assembled into fully automatic firearms. Thanks to the work of ATF agents and our law enforcement partners, this scheme was stopped before those weapons reached the streets.”

Law enforcement agents later executed a search warrant at Iglesias’s apartment and discovered eight HK gun kits in a large box prepared for shipment. Agents arrested Iglesias at that time. After Iglesias’s arrest, Teixeira delivered 10 additional firearm parts kits to an individual he believed was a buyer in the parking lot of Dolphin Mall.

The jury convicted Iglesias of one count of conspiracy to commit an offense against the U.S. and one count of attempt to smuggle goods from the U.S. He faces up to 5 years in federal prison on the conspiracy count and up to 10 years on the attempted smuggling count. U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams will sentence Iglesias on May 4, after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Teixeira was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison on March 10 after pleading guilty to the same charges.

U.S. Attorney Reding Quiñones and Special Agent in Charge Jason Stankiewicz of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), Miami Field Division, made the announcement.

The ATF Miami Field Office is investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Almas Abdulla, Christian Harris, and Joseph Mahoney are prosecuting the case.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number  25-cr-20161.

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