Mexican Ex-Cop Sentenced for Smuggling Drugs, Guns Across U.S. Border [Video]

A former Mexican police officer, Rene Hernandez-Cordero, 52, of Ciudad Juarez, was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison on Thursday, September 5.

Hernandez-Cordero was convicted in a federal court in May 2024 on several charges, including conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, straw purchasing of firearms, trafficking in firearms, and conspiracy to smuggle bulk cash, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas.

“In August 2023, Hernandez-Cordero and codefendant Jesus Gerardo Ramos, 53, of El Paso, met at a gas station in El Paso with the purpose of obtaining 20 AK-47 type firearms and two Barrett .50 caliber rifles which would have been smuggled to Mexico,” said the U.S. Attorney’s Office in a statement. “Evidence produced at trial showed that this particular group smuggled hundreds of firearms from the United States into Mexico from August 2022 to August 2023.”

Jesus Gerardo Ramos, 53, …