A Texas man indicted in 2019 on a charge of conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act won't have to serve any prison time after pleading guilty in June 2020 to a lesser charge of misprision of a felony (failure to report a felony) for his knowledge of a scheme to ship and assemble guns to drug cartels in Mexico.
Following a brief hearing Tuesday, much of which was conducted under seal, Alejandro Quiroz of Laredo, Texas, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Brian Miller to time served and ordered to pay a mandatory $100 special assessment to the court.
Quiroz, who attended the hearing remotely from Laredo, said little during the hearing, saying only, "no, I'm good," in response after Miller, appearing remotely from Helena-West Helena, offered him the opportunity to speak before passing judgment.
Quiroz was indicted as part of an arms trafficking conspiracy the government said was responsible for supplying arms to Mexican drug cartels that was headed by an Oklahoma man, Andrew Scott Pierson, 48, of Jay, Okla. Pierson, who was originally indicted by a federal grand jury in Arkansas in 2019 on multiple counts of arms trafficking -- including conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods, conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act, attempt to violate the Arms Export Control Act, attempt to violate the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act and conspiracy to violate the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Act -- pleaded guilty last November to one count of conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act and was sentenced by Miller in April to 12 years in federal prison.
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Pierson is currently appealing his sentence to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.
Investigators said from about 2014 to 2018, Pierson ordered firearm parts and material and would manufacture and repair firearms for the Cartel Del Noreste in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and the Cartel Jalisco Nuevo Generacion in Guadalajara, Mexico.
The money generated from the firearms manufacturing plan was sent from Mexico to Laredo, Texas, into bank accounts in Pierson's name, as well as the names of several others indicted in the case and the names of fictitious businesses, according to the indictment.
Federal authorities said it was a shipment of receivers that led to Pierson's undoing after the recipient, a firearms technician in Pine Bluff, recognized the receivers as fake and notified police.
According to Quiroz's plea agreement, he had knowledge of Pierson's activities on behalf of the two cartels and that he helped to conceal the crime by allowing Pierson to charge an internet order for firearm parts in the amount of $2,100 to a credit card belonging to Quiroz.
Under U.S. sentencing statutes, Quiroz, who was under pre-trial supervision by the Southern District of Texas, could have faced up to three years in prison and under U.S. sentencing guidelines was recommended for a prison term ranging from 15 to 21 months. After Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne Gardner voiced no opposition to allowing Quiroz to avoid a term of supervised release, Miller announced his sentence.
"Here's what I'm going to do," Miller said. "I'm going to order you to time served and because this is a first time offense I'm not going to place you on any kind of supervision."
Miller also ordered Quiroz to pay a $100 mandatory special assessment, which he was instructed to mail to the office of the U.S. Court Clerk for the Eastern District of Arkansas in Little Rock.
A sentencing hearing for one of Quiroz's co-defendants, Enrique Olivas, was postponed after Olivas' attorney filed a continuance motion due to a scheduling conflict. Olivas also pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony.
Of the remaining four defendants, Maria Almendarez was sentenced to time served and three years supervised release for her guilty plea to conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act, Abraham Calderon was sentenced to 18 months in prison and one year supervised release for his guilty plea to misprision of a felony, and charges were dismissed against two others.
A fifth co-defendant, Ivan Quiroga, is a fugitive and believed to be living in Mexico.