How was discovered a network that trafficked weapons hidden in boxes of batteries from Miami to Venezuela

Florida is considered one of the US states. With greater facilities to bring weapons from the legal market to the illegal market (archive photo).

It all started with 25 empty battery boxes just arrived at the Miami airport.

Customs officials saw them so suspicious they began investigating what turned out to be a network that illegally smuggled weapons from the United States to Venezuela at least since 2013.
It took US justice almost a year of investigations and operations to discover a group of Venezuelans who carried guns, pistols, porters and tens of thousands of ammunition through commercial flights and ships from South Florida.

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In February, three people pleaded guilty and awaited their sentences, and another five were charged and are being claimed by US courts.
Louis Casuso, a lawyer for one of the three Venezuelans arrested, told BBC Mundo that it is in that second group of five that the "true leaders and organizers" of the arms trafficking network are found.
" They are the big fish, they are much more involved and more important because they are related to much earlier shipments ," said the lawyer.

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Miami is considered by experts to be one of the largest illegal arms trafficking sites for Central and South America due to its intense air and maritime flow, as well as the permissive arms access regulations in the state of Florida.
The previous month, for example, the government of Evo Morales reported the seizure of 75 large-caliber weapons that left Miami and entered Bolivia .

Copyright of the AP image

Image caption In February, Bolivia seized 75 weapons that came hidden from Miami.

Maracaibo-Miami-Maracaibo

On April 16 of last year, customs agents in the cargo area of ​​Miami International Airport 

decided to open the "suspect" cargo.
It was " 25 boxes of car batteries with glue residue, modified parts and carbon paper ," according to the sworn statement of the agent of the National Security Division of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Elvis Corrales, who was present that day.
That shipment arrived from Maracaibo bound for the home of a Colombian woman in the Miami neighborhood of Kendall.

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• The peculiarity of the contents of the cargo caused that the division of National Security of the ICE opted to follow up.
  In order not to miss details of what could happen with the car battery boxes that came to Miami in April, according to agent Corrales, ICE's National Security division appealed for the use of surveillance cameras .
  This is how they discovered that two individuals, José Gutiérrez Morales and Alfredo Montilla Hernández, transported the weapons that were to be sent to Venezuela to the home of Kendall.
  On several trips, the two Venezuelans carried five AR-15 assault rifles, eight pistols, 23,500 bullets, and 19 high-capacity long-range weapons .

Half year of surveillance

• Six months after the arrival of the battery boxes to Miami and the beginning of the surveillance work, the American justice gave its first blow.
  It was the 21 of October of 2016, day in which Gutierrez and Montilla were arrested .
  In his statement before a Miami court, agent Corrales said the arrest came after the two individuals tried to send the armaments "hidden inside the same drum boxes that arrived in April 2016."
  The two Venezuelans had delivered the cargo to a shipping company called Conavenca.
• 

  AR-15 assault rifles, like the one in the photo, and ammunition were found held by Venezuelans.

  "Agents (from the National Security Division) with the help of the Miami Dade County Police and the US Customs and Border Protection Office reached Gutierrez and Montilla in a gray Hyundai vehicle and placed them under arrest. Found two pistols, four AR-15 assault rifles and 1,721 bullets in the Hyundai , "Corrales said.
  The special agent report adds that both acknowledged that they tried to get the battery boxes loaded with weapons to Venezuela through a shipping company.
  

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Who is who?

• • José Gutiérrez Morales : On October 21 he transported the battery boxes loaded with weapons and ammunition from the home in Kendall to a maritime cargo company. On 24 June, along with other investigators still not detained and whose names were not revealed, managed to send two rifles and approximately 15,000 bullets inside electric generators to Venezuela by sea. He was arrested after the October episode and pleaded guilty in February.
  • Alfredo Montilla Hernández : collaborated with Gutiérrez in the transfer of the armament to a company that makes shipments by boat. He was arrested after delivery on 21 October. He acknowledged guilty in February and his sentence will be handed down in April.
  • Abrahán Aguilar Sánchez : In May 2016, while entering the United States, he was separated from the rest of the travelers at the Miami International Airport. The telephone number of Ener Soto, the person who sent the battery boxes in April and was accused of other arms shipments from the United States to Venezuela, was detected on his cell phone. In June 2016 he went to meet José Gutiérrez at the Miami air terminal. Gutiérrez said his place of residence in the United States was Aguilar's address in Miami. Aguilar was arrested on December 1 trying to travel from Miami to Maracaibo. He pleaded guilty in February 2017.

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The third arrested

• On December 1, 2016, Abrahán Aguilar Sánchez was detained at the Miami International Airport.
  The Venezuelan citizen tried to leave the United States and travel to his country when ICE agents prevented him from boarding the plane , according to the record of his case installed in the Federal Court of the Southern District of Florida.
  After a review of his cell phone, security officials stated he had contacts with the two previous arrestees and with at least one of the five "bigwigs" allegedly coordinating the network.
  
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  Two months later, in February of this year, the three Venezuelans pleaded guilty to a Federal Court in Miami for attempting to smuggle weapons.
• 

  In September 2016, Venezuela seized dozens of illegal weapons in several operations.

  Aguilar's lawyer, Louis Casuso, told BBC Mundo that his defendant is awaiting the reading of his sentence for April 24.
  " He pleaded guilty like two other Venezuelans investigated for the same case, " said the lawyer.
  The accusation against Aguilar, accessed by BBC Mundo, points to him as part of a group of Venezuelans who tried to send weapons inside empty battery boxes.
  "Aguilar stated that he knew about the empty battery boxes and the attempt to export weapons and ammunition," says the case report prepared by ICE National Security Special Agent Elvis Corrales.
  Judges following their cases pointed out in separate hearings that the punishment of each may range from four to ten years and may be deported after serving their sentences .

The five "bigwigs"

• Investigations have established that the case of battery boxes is linked to previous shipments of weapons dating back to 2013 .
  For these crimes, the US justice system accused five more people in February of this year.
  They are Ender Enrique Soto Hernández, Ender Alberto Soto Hernandez, Luis Antonio Urdaneta Pozo, Wilmer Hinestroza Pereira and Alcibiades of Jesus Palmar Narváez.
  
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  Attorney Louis Casuso noted that Urdaneta was arrested in Orlando in the previous weeks and it is known that the Soto Hernandez brothers would remain in Venezuela.
  "This complicates the case since there is no extradition treaty between the US and Venezuela," said Casuso.
• 

  After Brazil, Venezuela is the country with the most illegal weapons.

  The five new defendants are reported to have carried out illegal arms trafficking actions from approximately February 2013 to October 2016 .
  The Venezuelans managed to transport, according to US law, tens of thousands of bullets and firearms of various caliber.
  The shipments were made through commercial flights, hiding the armament in the luggage, inside altered electrical generators and empty boxes of battery .
  The research portal on organized crime Insight Crime , citing a report by the independent organization Gun Policy , indicates that there are 2.7 million illegal weapons in Venezuela.
  Venezuela is the second largest country in South America with illegal weapons after Brazil.

Miami, port of departure

• Florida is considered one of the most permissive states in terms of access to firearms.
  
  Laura Cutilletta, a lawyer at the San Francisco-based Law Center for the Prevention of Violence with Firearms (LCPGV), explained to BBC Mundo that this is primarily because Florida has no regulations Reviewing the background of gun buyers.
• 

  By its enormous air and maritime flow, and the permissiveness in its norms, Florida is considered by experts like one of the greatest centers of illegal traffic of arms in the United States.

  " In Florida it is virtually unknown who is buying weapons and is an ideal setting to bring weapons from the legal market to the illegal market, " said the expert of the independent organization.
  Cutilletta also added that the absence of background checks allows US and foreign smugglers to do business with sophisticated weaponry.
  Other factors identified by the Legal Center for the Prevention of Violence with Firearms that return to Florida a place for illegal arms trafficking is that buyers can access large quantities of weaponry in the short term .
  Cutilletta added that the opposite happens in California, for example, that has land border with Mexico, but where the background check is regulated for any transaction related to weapons.
  From South Florida boats depart loaded with dozens of containers every day heading to most of the ports of South America.
  
  And justice has just proved that in some of them traveled weapons to Venezuela, camouflaged between electric generators and empty battery boxes.