A federal grand jury in the Northern District of Texas has returned a 13-count superseding indictment charging five people with allegedly conspiring to supply firearms and ammunition to Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, trafficking drugs and running illegal straw-purchase schemes, U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould announced in Amarillo.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
The indictment, returned on September 24, names Loyd Walter Hall — also known as “Jamie Hall” and “James William” — along with Jesus Quezada Meza, Omar Velasquez and Catlynn Ann Townsend, who were first indicted on June 25. A fifth defendant, Johnnie Wayne Corbett, 42, of Amarillo, was added in the superseding indictment and was arrested by federal agents on October 17.
What prosecutors allege
Prosecutors allege Hall coordinated the supply of firearms, ammunition and related equipment to the Sinaloa Cartel — an organisation designated by the U.S. Secretary of State as a foreign terrorist organisation — knowing it carries out attacks on law enforcement, rivals and civilians. The charges also include an alleged conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, heroin and cocaine for importation into the United States, and allegations that Hall possessed semiautomatic rifles to further drug trafficking.
According to the indictment, the defendants allegedly recruited straw purchasers who falsely claimed on federal ATF Form 4473s that they were the real buyers, so high-powered firearms could be moved covertly to criminal associates and, in some cases, toward the U.S.–Mexico border.
Hall, Quezada Meza, Velasquez and Corbett are in federal custody; Townsend has been issued a summons. If convicted, Hall faces up to life in federal prison, Meza and Velasquez up to 15 years each, and Townsend and Corbett up to five years each, the Justice Department said.
“The defendants supplied powerful rifles and ammunition to the Sinaloa Cartel — one of the most violent criminal organisations in the world,” Raybould said. ATF Dallas Special Agent in Charge Brian Garner said traffickers who arm cartels “fuel a cycle of bloodshed, drug trafficking, and destruction that threatens communities on both sides of the border.”
Source: Daily News Cycle
The investigation was led by the ATF Dallas Field Division with Homeland Security Investigations Dallas and High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task forces, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Colleen Bloss and Marbel Munoz. An indictment is only an allegation, and all five defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.