Straw purchasing, the practice of using a legally eligible buyer as a proxy for parties barred from acquiring firearms, is the mechanism federal prosecutors identified at the center of this case. Luis Alberto Osorio, of Elko, Nevada, pleaded guilty Friday to four federal counts: straw purchasing of firearms, firearms trafficking, harboring certain aliens, and conspiracy to launder money, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Nevada.
Court documents allege that Osorio and co-defendants ran the scheme from April 2020 through last September, purchasing 140 firearms, magazines, and ammunition for individuals affiliated with violent Mexican drug-trafficking cartels. The weapons were to be sold south of the border for a profit. The specific models named in the filing distinguish this from a street-level straw purchase. They include the Ohio Ordnance Works M2-SLR in .50 BMG caliber, the Barrett M82A1 and M107A1 .50 BMG antimaterial rifles, the FN Herstal M249S in 5.56x45mm, and the FH Herstal SCAR 17S in 7.62x51mm. Court documents describe them as large-caliber, long-range, military-style rifles.
Osorio also admitted to employing people illegally at a mining company he operated in Nevada, with that count folded into the same plea.
Charges and the task force that brought them
The four counts together carry a statutory maximum of 70 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for February.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah for the District of Nevada said in a statement that cutting off the supply chain directly disrupts the operational capabilities of dangerous criminal organizations. Jonathan Sherwin, deputy special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations Las Vegas, attributed the result to the Homeland Security Task Force and its federal, state, and local partners. David S. Olesky, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Los Angeles Field Division, which has jurisdiction over Nevada, said the DEA and its partners would bring to bear all resources against organizations that traffic weapons and drugs.
The Homeland Security Task Force was established by an executive order President Donald Trump signed on his first day in office last year. The Osorio case is among those the Justice Department has cited as part of that initiative. The question of what charges, if any, the named co-defendants face was not addressed in Friday's release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.