Six Volusia men accused of trafficking ‘military’ weapons to Mexican drug cartels

Six Volusia County men have been charged with smuggling what prosecutors call military-grade weapons to Mexican drug cartels, according to the Justice Department.

Prosecutors said 34-year-old DeLand resident Angel Velazquez Delgado led five others who also lived in DeLand to buy guns in Florida and Georgia and sent them through Texas to Mexico, where they were used by the La Famila and La Cartels. Nueva Generacion, police said. news release Tuesday from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.

The men were paid in cash and illegal drugs while also smuggling imported cocaine into Volusia, the release said. They purchased firearms with profits from drug sales or with money supplied directly by the cartels. Velazquez Delgado initially bought guns himself, but eventually let the other men buy them for him.

The guns include high-caliber armor-piercing and anti-material weapons (designed for use against military equipment and structures). The release said the weapons include approximately 11 Barrett .50-caliber rifles – which can overcome all forms of individually worn body armor and disable vehicles, aircraft and boats, as well as some armored vehicle protections. According to the press release, approximately 16 FN M249S rifles – semi-automatic rifles that can easily be converted into machine guns – were also sent.

In March 2023, Mexican authorities used the eTrace Firearm Recovery Notification Program to identify a Barrett .50 caliber rifle — recovered after a deadly shootout with suspected members of La Nueva Generacion — as purchased by one of the men in 2022, according to the release. The men eventually began removing the serial numbers from the weapons to prevent them from being tracked.

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The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms began investigating the men when two attempted to purchase Barrett .50 caliber rifles from a licensed firearms dealer in Okaloosa County, the release said. The store owner thought they were trying to buy the gun on behalf of Velazquez Delgado, whose store had just refused to sell the gun because he had already purchased some.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol seized Velazquez Delgado’s phone while crossing from Mexico into the United States in May 2023 and found messages, audio and photos related to human trafficking, including with a known La Nueva commander Generacion Cartel, according to court records.

His phone, along with the phones of at least two of the other men, was later seized with a search warrant and more communications related to the operation were found, the documents said.

Velazquez Delgado reached a deal with prosecutors in August, pleading guilty to one count of purchasing firearms from straw and one count of trafficking in firearms. His sentencing is December 18 and he faces up to 40 years in prison.

The five other men were charged with various crimes, including conspiracy, trafficking in firearms, purchasing straw and making a false statement on a firearms transaction record. Each faces a maximum sentence of 10 to 60 years in prison.