Feds raid gun store tied to Mexican drug cartels
Agents say weapons at murder scenes came from Phoenix
64 comments by Sean Holstege - May. 7, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Federal agents swooped down on a north Phoenix gun store Tuesday in the biggest weapons bust in years, highlighting Arizona's major role as an arms conduit to violent drug cartels in Mexico.
Authorities said the store was a source for at least 650 high-powered weapons, including 250 AK-47 automatic weapons, smuggled to drug cartels for use in the escalating Mexican drug war. That war left 2,500 dead last year, and Arizona weapons were used to assassinate police and battle army squads near the border, authorities said.
The raid on X-Caliber Guns on North Cave Creek Road capped an 11-month investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Phoenix Police Department and the Arizona Attorney General's Office. Agents pored over evidence in the store, seized 1,300 weapons and closed down the business.
Authorities arrested store owner George Iknadosian, 46, and two brothers, Hugo Miguel Gamez, 26, of Mesa, and Cesar Boroguez-Gamez, 28, of Phoenix, who are suspected of trafficking the weapons. All were booked into a Maricopa County jail.
The bust was noteworthy because of the large number of weapons seized and because licensed gun dealers are rarely the target of investigations. It was the first shutdown of an Arizona gun store in at least five years, Attorney General Terry Goddard said.
Officials pointed out that weapons come back to Arizona in the hands of drug smugglers and coyotes who confine illegal immigrants at gunpoint in Valley drophouses.
"This is a despicable crime. It puts all of us at risk because these drophouses are in your neighborhoods," Phoenix Assistant Police Chief Andy Anderson said.
The investigation reveals the reach of cartel gunrunners and signals growing teamwork between U.S. and Mexican authorities. Mexican prosecutors sat in on suspect interviews.
The federal Attorney General's Office in Mexico issued a statement Tuesday saying the office "recognizes and salutes these actions carried out by the U.S. authorities to interrupt the illegal trafficking of firearms into Mexican territory."
Iknadosian was arrested Tuesday at his Glendale home and is accused of fraud, money laundering, illegal arms-trafficking and running an illegal enterprise. He started selling guns in Arizona in 2004.
The Gamez brothers are accused of setting up a network of straw purchasers who acted as go-betweens to buy the guns on the brothers' behalf. The two are suspected of then transporting the weapons to Mexico. Hugo is a U.S. citizen, and Cesar is a Mexican citizen living legally in Phoenix.
ATF Supervisory Special Agent Pete Forcelli said Iknadosian knew the guns were going to cartels. In making the case, undercover agents bought weapons, and he coached them on how fill out paperwork to disguise the sales.
Weapons traced to X-Caliber turned up at several Mexican murder scenes. In one recent Mexican case, an X-Caliber AK-47 was found alongside grenade-launcher equipment and 3 tons of marijuana.
One of the guns sold by X-Caliber was a .38-caliber pistol recovered in January when the Mexican army arrested a Sinaloan cartel leader, Alfredo Beltran Leyva, in Culiacan. Leyva was suspected of running hit squads and is right-hand man to Mexico's most-wanted fugitive, cartel boss Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman.
Forcelli said a remarkable thing about the X-Caliber case is that owner Iknadosian knew he was under investigation.
"If I had to describe this guy in one word, it would be arrogant," Forcelli said. "He knew we were looking at him, and he did it anyway."
Undercover agents bought a dozen AK-47s and a specialized handgun like Beltran-Leyva's from X-Caliber.
Agents said Iknadosian paid less attention than liquor-store owners do in checking identification.
Recent discoveries and Tuesday's bust show that Arizona gun-smugglers are arming three of Mexico's four major drug-smuggling cartels. Arizona weapons have been found as faraway as Cancun.
ATF agents have traced weapons seized in Juarez and Tijuana back to Arizona.
During a Juarez gunbattle between the army and drug shooters, a .50-caliber rifle that had been bought in Arizona was used to decapitate a Juarez police officer.
