FRESNO, Calif. — U.S. Attorney Benjamin
B. Wagner announced today that Gregorio Salgado Lopez, 34, of Madera, was
extradited to Mexico on June 12, 2012, where he is wanted to stand trial for
the alleged illegal possession of firearms without a license while in Mexico
and the clandestine introduction of firearms into Mexico.
According to the extradition request
submitted by Mexico and court documents, on March 22, 2009, shortly before 6:00
p.m., a bus traveling from Tijuana, Baja California, to Santiago Juxtlahuaca,
Oaxaca, arrived at the inspection station in the town of Sonoyta, Sonora,
Mexico. The passengers were required to get off the bus with their luggage and
present themselves for random inspection in the inspection station. The
inspectors reported that one of the passengers whose luggage was randomly
chosen for inspection presented documents identifying himself as Gregorio
Salgado Lopez. He also presented five luggage claim tickets that matched the
claim tags on four cardboard boxes and a suitcase. Inside the boxes, the
inspectors discovered disassembled pieces of rifles, some wrapped in aluminum
foil and hidden under clothes. Re-assembled later in the Office of the Federal
Public Prosecutor, the pieces equaled 55 Ruger brand .22–caliber rifles. The
Federal Public Prosecutor also made a record of the unique serial number on
each of the rifles.
According to documents filed with the
court, on March 24, 2009, Salgado Lopez gave a deposition to the Federal Public
Prosecutor of the State of Sonora, in which he claimed that strangers gave him
the boxes in Tijuana, said that the boxes contained tools, and asked him if he
would take the “tools” with him. They offered to pay him 30,000 Mexican pesos,
so he agreed. Salgado Lopez also admitted that he did not have the necessary
license to possess firearms in Mexico. He could not remember the people who
purportedly offered him money to carry the boxes to Oaxaca. However, according
to records maintained by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives, Salgado Lopez illegally purchased some of the firearms in Madera
County, California.
The United States Marshals Service
arrested Salgado Lopez in Madera County in November 2011. On June 1, 2012,
following court proceedings in U.S. District Court in Fresno, the court ordered
his extradition to Mexico. Salgado Lopez was extradited to Mexico on June 12,
2012.
Salgado Lopez is an unindicted
co–conspirator in a firearms trafficking case pending in U.S. District Court:
United States v. Ernesto Salgado–Guzman, et al., 1:11–CR–00376 AWI, which is
scheduled for a status conference before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dennis L. Beck
on July 23, 2012. According to court documents, the defendants in that case
allegedly purchased firearms in Madera that were then sold in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Firearms in Gregorio Salgado Lopez’s possession were traced to the defendants
in the case.
“Continued cooperation with Mexican law
enforcement agencies to improve public safety in both countries has been a
priority for the U.S. Department of Justice,” said United States Attorney
Wagner. “This case exemplifies that kind of cooperation.”
Salgado Lopez is the third defendant
extradited to Mexico from the Eastern District of California in the last six
weeks. On April 27, 2012, U.S. Attorney Wagner announced the extradition of
Emilio Osornio Valdovinos, 55, of Michoacán, who was wanted to stand trial for
an alleged killing in Michoacán in 2005. On May 10, 2012, the U.S. Attorney
announced the extradition of Raul Mejia Vazquez, 73, of Morelia, who was wanted
to stand trial for the alleged killing of his brother in 2009, also in
Michoacán.
The Salgado Lopez extradition is the
product of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland
Security Investigations (HSI), and the U.S. Marshals Service. Assistant U.S.
Attorneys Ian Garriques and Kimberly Sanchez prosecuted the case. The Office of
International Affairs in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division provided
invaluable assistance.
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