Slow and Tedious: Guilty Plea on Gun Charges Leads to a 46 Month Prison Term for Carreon

Albuquerque Journal - A federal judge Wednesday handed a 46-month prison term to the first defendant to be sentenced in a gun-smuggling case that one year ago swept up the Columbus mayor, police chief and a village trustee. Judge Robert Brack declined a prosecutor’s request to give Vicente Carreon a stiffer sentence, citing the man’s “minor part” in a conspiracy in which straw buyers, or substitute customers, bought about 200 firearms from a dealer in Chaparral and sent them to Mexican drug gang members who had placed the orders.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Lichvarcik argued that Carreon, 27, deserved a prison sentence of up to seven years and three months under federal guidelines, because the gun smuggling caper endangered national security and helped fuel “armed conflict” in Mexico’s bloody drug battles. Read full story here (subscription required) News New Mexico

Slow and Tedious: Guilty Plea on Gun Charges Leads to a 46 Month Prison Term for Carreon