SAN ANTONIO – A federal judge in San Antonio on Monday sentenced a former Karnes County sheriff’s deputy to 32 months in federal prison for buying about 40 firearms that were later smuggled to Mexico.
After completing his prison term, Oswaldo Bernal must pay a money judgment of $7,191 and be placed on supervised release for three years.
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According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Western District of Texas, Bernal pleaded guilty in March to one count of aiding and abetting smuggling goods from the U.S.
By pleading guilty, Bernal admitted that while he was a Karnes County deputy sheriff, he purchased the firearms in 2020 from San Antonio firearms dealers under a discount program for law enforcement officers called the “Blue Label Program.” Bernal then sold those weapons to Juan Cesar Fabian Ayala-Melendez, a native of Monterrey, Mexico, who was illegally residing in the U.S.
Ayala admitted that he smuggled the firearms into Monterrey through a Laredo-based international shipping company. On March 4, Ayala pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, namely the proceeds of the weapons trafficking conspiracy, and one count of being an alien in possession of a firearm. He remains in federal custody awaiting sentencing scheduled for July 19.
A third co-defendant, Yesenia Berenice De La Cerda Mendoza, faces federal charges for her role in the weapons trafficking and money laundering scheme. Her re-arraignment is set for June 17.