Two men have been sentenced to more than seven years in prison after trying to traffic a truck full of weapons from the U.S. into Mexico.
The men, Esteban Rios Reyes and Alex Santos Lopez, pleaded guilty to the charges. Court testimony reviewed by Border Report revealed they were part of a larger organization involved in smuggling firearms.
The arrests happened in September 2023 when Santos attempted to drive a truck with a utility trailer across the Texas border into Mexico. During an outbound inspection, agents discovered hundreds of guns and magazines, along with more than 1,500 rounds of ammunition.
Authorities said the weapons included assault rifles, shotguns, and pistols, some of which were disassembled. They were hidden behind a false wall in the trailer. Investigators also determined that the men had been smuggling weapons since 2022.
The flow of guns from the U.S. into Mexico has long been a concern. Mexico’s Defense Secretariat reported in July that it had identified 11 gun smuggling routes between the two countries. With the help of the General Prosecutor’s Office, authorities seized nearly 6,000 firearms between November 2024 and May 2025, most of them linked to criminal groups.
According to the report, 43% of the seized weapons came from Texas, 22% from Arizona, and 9% from California. Mexico’s Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said earlier this year that 75% of weapons recovered between February and May originated from the U.S.—a figure that U.S. officials also recognized.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously blocked a $10 billion lawsuit Mexico filed against U.S. gun manufacturers. The lawsuit accused companies like Smith & Wesson, Beretta, Colt, and Glock of fueling cartel violence by allowing their products to flow south. Mexico argued that the companies knew their weapons were being smuggled and profited from the trade.
Today, Mexico has only one store where civilians can legally purchase firearms.
