A federal judge has sentenced a man to more than three years in prison for his role in a scheme to buy automatic weapons and smuggle them to a Mexican drug cartel.
U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn sentenced Mexican national Joel Ernesto Monsivaiz Pina, 25, to 37 months Wednesday.
Money for the guns, which were supposed to be transported to Mexico, was provided by the Zetas drug cartel, prosecutors said.
Pina, his wife, Belia Monsivaiz, 38, Raymundo Gonzalez Vasquez, 39, and Maria Garcia, 37, have all pleaded guilty to one count of possessing a machine gun. The four were arrested in October after trying to buy automatic AK-47 rifles in Pueblo from a federal agent.
Blackburn sentenced Pina’s wife to 73 months Tuesday. Garcia and Vasquez have both pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.
Pina was easily swayed by his wife, who is older and far more sophisticated than he is, said his lawyer, Steven Jacobson.
Blackburn said Pina’s lack of a criminal record and the fact that his participation in the scheme was minimal and that his wife led him into the plot were reason enough for a sentence lower than the 46 months sought by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kurt Bohn. “It was his wife driving this,” Blackburn said.
Blackburn told Pina — who had illegally entered the country twice and was allowed to return to Mexico without prosecution before the sting — that once he completes his time, he will probably be deported.
If he then returns to the United States, the felony on his record could send him back to prison for up to 20 years.
Bohn said more prison time would send a signal to others not to “be a mule because it takes a lot of your life away.”
The time Pina will spend in prison is enough to deter others from taking similar action, Blackburn said.
Jacobson said his client will not be a threat. “He is going to go home and spend the rest of his life on the family farm,” he said.
and Vasquez had traveled from Texas and met two agents at a Home Depot parking lot, according to a court document.
The agents took them to a storage unit, where an undercover vehicle containing a crate of guns was parked.
“The (agent) stated that the rifles were the right ones as they were ‘full automatics,’ ” according to the document.
All four admitted to knowingly participating in the plan to purchase and transport the weapons from Colorado to Texas, where they would be transferred to another person.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671, tmcghee@denverpost.com or twitter.com/dpmcghee
