US Consulate driver caught trying to smuggle guns from Arizona to Mexico
Aug 27, 2021, 9:45 AM
(U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Photo)
(U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Photo)
PHOENIX – A driver for the U.S. Consulate in Nogales, Mexico, was sentenced this week to nearly four years behind bars for trying to smuggle guns across the border from Arizona, authorities said.
A U.S. District Court judge in Tucson sentenced Luis Manuel Bray-Vazquez, 35, to 46 months in prison on Tuesday. He’d entered a guilty plea on April 14.
“Bray-Vazquez’s prosecution and the length of sentence imposed should serve as a warning that weapons smugglers, including anyone attempting to hide behind the veil of an official position, will pay a heavy price for their crimes,” Acting United States Attorney Glenn B. McCormick said in a press release Thursday.
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Bray-Vazquez is a Mexican citizen who worked for the U.S. Consulate just south of the Arizona border.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers apprehended him on the Arizona side of the Nogales port of entry on Nov. 4, 2020, after they found 10 rifles – including several AK-47s — and five pistols in the consular vehicle he was driving.
Bray-Vazquez allegedly told officers he’d been paid to bring the firearms into Mexico and had been successful on previous attempts.
