5 arrested for allegedly trafficking weapons to drug cartel [Video]

SAN ANTONIO — Five people were arrested in Laredo, Hebbronville and Falls City Wednesday for allegedly trafficking military grade weapons to a drug cartel in Mexico.

Gerardo Rafael Perez Jr. aka “Jerry,” 23, of Laredo, allegedly planned for more than 100 firearms in Texas to be smuggled across the border and delivered to a drug trafficking cartel in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico, according to court documents. Perez’s organization allegedly used straw purchasers, including co-defendants Francisco Alejandro Benavides aka “Frankie,” 23, and Mark Anthony Trevino Jr., 24, to obtain the weapons from numerous sources in the Western, Southern, and Northern Districts of Texas. These same documents allege that the organization would get the guns from unlicensed dealers of firearms, or from federal firearm licensees, where straw purchasers would make false representations to secure the firearms.

Luis …