BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A man who admitted buying guns he knew would go from the United States to a drug cartel in Mexico has been arrested in Texas after one of the guns was linked to the recent kidnapping of four Americans, according to court documents.
Roberto Lugardo Moreno made his first appearance in federal court in Brownsville on Monday and was assigned a public defender, who did not immediately respond to a voicemail left seeking comment. His detention hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
The kidnapping took place in Matamoros, Mexico, which borders Brownsville.
According to a federal complaint filed Saturday, Lugardo Moreno was charged with conspiracy to illegally export a firearm. The complaint says he admitted to buying firearms for people he knew to deliver them to a member of the Gulf Cartel in Mexico.
The serial number of a gun he purchased in October 2019 matches that of a weapon recovered by authorities and linked to the March 3 kidnappings, according to the complaint. Lugardo Moreno said he did not apply for a license to export the firearm from the United States to Mexico and knew it would be exported illegally, according to the complaint.
Lugardo Moreno told authorities he received $100 for the purchase of the guns.
Four friends who traveled to Mexico for plastic surgery on one of them were caught up in a shootout by drug traffickers in Matamoros. After a vehicle rammed their truck, men in tactical vests with semi-automatic rifles arrived in another vehicle and surrounded them.
It appears Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown died instantly and their bodies were loaded into the van along with the two survivors, Eric Williams and Latavia McGee. A few days later, the bodies and the two living friends were found in a hut.