Leader Of Smuggling Ring Ordered To Federal Prison

LAREDO, Texas - Oswaldo Rafael Borrego-Ramos aka “Baldo,” 31, a Mexican national and leader of an international smuggling ring, has been sentenced for recruiting local persons to illegally purchase firearms for his organization, United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson announced today. He pleaded guilty to the firearms conspiracy March 6, 2013, admitting he recruited individuals who acquired firearms, ammunition and firearm accessories from stores in Laredo and then had the items smuggled illegally to Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

Today, U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia-Marmolejo, who accepted the guilty plea, handed Borrego-Ramos a sentence of 60 months, 18 of which will be served consecutively to an existing 78-month sentence he is already serving in another case involving other firearm purchases. He is expected to face deportations proceedings following completion of his 96-month sentence.

Investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) began a series of investigations into this firearms trafficking organization and discovered Borrego-Ramos directed the acquisition and smuggling into Mexico of at least 32 known illegal firearms since 2008. At least 18 persons involved in the enterprise have been arrested and prosecuted for their participation.

The investigation involved historical purchases made by co-conspirators and illegally smuggled to Mexico before the federal investigations began. Agents traced at least three of those firearms to crime scenes in Mexico. During this investigation, no firearms were permitted to be exported to Mexico. 

Borrego-Ramos has been in custody since his arrest on June 26, 2012, where he will remain pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

This case was investigated by ATF and HSI with the assistance of the Laredo Police Department and the Webb County Sheriff’s Department. Assistant United States Attorney Homero Ramirez is prosecuting.