January 1, Nevada Gun Runner’s SHOCKING Betrayal: 140 Military Weapons to Cartels

Wyatt’s Take

• A Nevada man admitted to funneling 140 high-powered military-style weapons—including anti-material rifles and machine guns—straight into the hands of bloodthirsty Mexican drug cartels while employing illegal aliens at his Nevada mining operation.
• This wasn’t some back-alley handgun deal—we’re talking .50 caliber sniper rifles, long-range Barrett firearms, and FN machine guns that can tear through armored vehicles, all smuggled south to fuel cartel violence that spills back across our border.
• Thanks to Trump’s Day One executive order creating the Homeland Security Task Force, federal agents finally had the tools to bust this gun-running operation that was arming the same cartels poisoning American communities with fentanyl and trafficking humans across our southern border.

Luis Alberto Osorio of Elko, Nevada, pleaded guilty Friday to a staggering conspiracy that armed violent Mexican drug cartels with enough military-grade firepower to outfit a small army. Between April 2020 and September of last year, Osorio and his co-conspirators purchased 140 firearms, high-capacity magazines, and ammunition specifically to sell to cartel operatives south of the border, according to the Department of Justice.

This wasn’t your typical gun trafficking case. Osorio was buying serious hardware—the kind of weapons designed for military operations, not civilian use.

The arsenal included Ohio Ordnance Works M2-SLR .50 BMG rifles, Barrett M82A1 and M107A1 .50 BMG anti-material rifles capable of disabling vehicles and equipment from over a mile away, FN Herstal M249S machine guns, and FN Herstal SCAR 17S battle rifles. These are the same weapons U.S. special forces carry into combat zones.

As if arming foreign criminal organizations wasn’t enough, Osorio also admitted to knowingly employing illegal aliens at a mining company he operated in Nevada. The man was enabling illegal immigration while simultaneously arming the cartels that profit from human trafficking and drug smuggling.

Osorio pleaded guilty to one count of straw purchasing of firearms, one count of trafficking in firearms, one count of harboring certain aliens, and one count of conspiracy to launder money. He faces up to 70 years behind bars when sentenced in February.

“Firearms trafficking networks feed the violent cartels that terrorize border communities and pump illicit drugs into our neighborhoods,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah for the District of Nevada said in a statement.

“By cutting off this supply chain and holding this defendant accountable, we are directly disrupting the operational capabilities of these dangerous criminal organizations.”

The cartels Osorio armed are the same organizations flooding American streets with fentanyl that killed over 100,000 Americans last year. They’re the same gangs trafficking women and children across our border. And now we know they’re wielding American-made military weapons bought by traitors operating on U.S. soil.

“Trafficking military-style firearms and ammunition to drug trafficking organizations in Mexico fuels violence, strengthens criminal networks and threatens communities on both sides of the border,” said Jonathan Sherwin, deputy special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations Las Vegas.

“This guilty plea is the result of relentless work by HSI and the Homeland Security Task Force and our federal, state and local partners to disrupt the flow of weapons, money and criminal support that allows these organizations to operate.”

This case represents exactly the kind of coordinated enforcement President Donald Trump envisioned when he signed an executive order on his first day in office creating the Homeland Security Task Force. While the previous administration turned a blind eye to border security, Trump immediately mobilized federal resources to crack down on the criminal networks profiting from our porous southern border.

“In the world of organized crime and drug trafficking, guns and drugs go hand-in-hand,” David S. Olesky, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration Los Angeles Field Division, said in a statement.

“As a member of the Homeland Security Task Force, DEA and our partners will bring to bear all resources and draw on the full scope of our agencies’ expertise to hold accountable those individuals and organizations which pose a public health and safety threat to our communities through the trafficking of drugs and firearms.”

Border agents have been sounding the alarm for years about the sophisticated weapons cartels are using. Just months ago, agents discovered an RPG launcher and cache of rifles hidden in a vehicle heading to Mexico. The cartels aren’t operating with Saturday night specials anymore—they’re armed with military equipment that rivals what our own border patrol carries.

And who’s supplying them? Americans like Osorio who put profit over patriotism, who see our southern border crisis as a business opportunity rather than a national security threat.

Wyatt Matters

Every .50 caliber rifle Osorio smuggled to Mexico will be used against our border agents, Mexican police trying to restore order, and innocent civilians caught in cartel crossfire. Those weapons don’t stay in Mexico—cartel operatives bring them back across the border during drug runs and human trafficking operations. When your local sheriff’s department responds to a call involving cartel activity, they’re potentially facing the same military-grade firepower our troops encounter overseas, thanks to traitors like Osorio. This is why border security isn’t just about the border—it’s about protecting every American community from the violence and chaos that flows north when we fail to control who and what crosses our southern boundary.