Last week, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) seized 140 firearms, including two .50 caliber rifles and a machine gun from a residence in the United States. Investigators also found evidence of firearms and human trafficking, and they are currently testing the weapons to determine if they've been used in any crimes that have taken place in the area.
They believed the guns were connected to the Sinaloa Cartel, and plans were to smuggle them to Mexico. (Each year, while drugs flow north of the border, approximately 200,000 firearms make their way south from the United States into Mexico.)
"This investigation pulls the plug on an extremely dangerous firearms trafficking operation," said ATF Special Agent in Charge Alicia Jones. "The firearms the source planned to smuggle across the border would have fueled more violence from a dangerous cartel. To have those firearms in our custody is a major win for public safety on both sides of the border."
So where was this residence located? In some town close to the border? Texas? Arizona? Maybe a big city like Los Angeles? No, it was in Lincoln County, just outside Charlotte, N.C., where Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) — two of the most dangerous, violent, and powerful criminal organizations in the world — have a surprisingly heavy presence.
In May of this year, Emmanuel Martimiano Leon-Soto, a 42-year-old Mexican national and high-ranking member of the Sinaloa Cartel, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ), was sentenced to "336 months of imprisonment for conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine hydrochloride and a concurrent 240 months of imprisonment for conspiracy to commit money laundering," followed by five years of supervised release. He'd been charged along with 37 other individuals in November 2024 by a federal grand jury seated in the Middle District of North Carolina.
In 2023, 14 members of a "major drug organization" with ties to Sinaloa and CJNG "that trafficked hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and fentanyl in the Charlotte, North Carolina, area and illegally possessed firearms in support of that operation, were sentenced... following a two-year investigation led by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)."
The multi-agency operation that brough them to justice led to the "seizure of large quantities of narcotics, including approximately 328 kilograms of cocaine, 26 kilograms of fentanyl, and a kilogram of heroin," as well as "approximately 60 firearms, 18 high-capacity magazines and ammunition, more than $2.4 million in cash drug proceeds, over $300,000 in jewelry, two residences, ten vehicles, a boat, and two tractor-trailers with hidden compartments for smuggling narcotics."
Their sentences ranged from 14 months to 24 years in prison.
As for CJNG, it's responsible for a significant portion of the drugs found in the Carolinas. Reporters for WBTV conducted an investigative report last year alongside narcotics officers and learned that most drug cases in North and South Carolina had some sort of connection to CJNG or Sinaloa. Russ Ferguson, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina who is handling many of those cases, confirmed that earlier this year.
"CJNG is one of the most unique cartel structures we have," he said. "They have boards of directors, they have money guys and CPAs and things, and they’re engaged in all sorts of different crime." He also confirmed that the organization has a presence in all 50 states and 49 other countries.
Last month, Elian Rene Fabian Valladolid, a 26-year-old Mexican national and the leader of a local Charlotte-area CJNG cell, was sentenced to 262 months for "conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine." He'll be deported once he serves his sentence.
In April of this year, Leonardo Sandoval-Ocampo, a 26-year-old Mexican national who was in the United States illegally, was sentenced to 150 months in prison after pleading "guilty to conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine, and distribution of methamphetamine." And 43-year-old Gerardo Agustin Salinas-Isais, a Mexican national who was living legally in the U.S., was sentenced to 135 months after pleading guilty to "possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine." Both men were members of the Sinaloa Cartel and will be deported when they're out of prison.
"We talk about cartels all the time – this case is an example of how real the threat is," Ferguson said in a DOJ press release. "This case shows that cartels like Sinaloa are in our communities. The Homeland Security Task Force is dedicated to the complete elimination of cartels like Sinaloa, and this case is an important step in achieving that goal. These defendants will now spend more than a decade in federal prison and then be removed from the country."
I guess the lesson here is that this is what happens when you have an open border: Two of the most powerful transnational criminal groups in the world establish logistics and distribution hubs anywhere they please. While, thankfully, we haven't seen the kind of turf war violence we see in Mexico in North Carolina, we are now seeing stash houses, sophisticated trafficking pipelines, and the steady flow of guns out of and fentanyl, cocaine, and meth into our communities. I can only imagine what would come next if law enforcement weren't cracking down.
This is exactly why the Donald Trump administration's fight against the narcos is justified.
