By Brian McBride
Associate Editor

The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office was credited Tuesday in helping to execute the most significant firearms trafficking investigation in Central Florida history as labeled by the Florida Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that sent a Kissimmee man to prison for more than six years.

The Sheriff’s Office was part of Operation Castaway, an organized crime and drug enforcement task force that conducted the trafficking investigation along with bureau and Orange and Brevard County sheriff’s offices and the Miami-Dade Police Department.

Sheriff Bob Hansell said the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office assisted the law enforcement agencies in arresting Ramon Lopez, 20, of Kissimmee, in its jurisdiction; Lopez was one of six men sent to federal prison earlier this week. U.S. District Judge Gregory A. Presnell sentenced Lopez to 74 months behind bars for dealing firearms without a license and unlawfully possessing short-barreled rifles.

“Gun and drug traffickers being removed from our community makes a significant impact on public safety,” Hansell said.

The firearms the suspects were dealing with were linked to violent crimes around the world and an organized crime group referred to by cartel members as “cop killers,” according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office press release.

According to court documents, a group of defendants connected to Hugh Crumpler III, 63, of Palm Bay, were involved in a major international gun trafficking operation. Crumpler has trafficked, for several years, more than 1,000 firearms to various groups and defendants who have exported weapons all over Central and South America and to Puerto Rico.

The weapons included Glock semi-automatic handguns, Fabrique Nationale Herstal 5.7-by-28mm semi-automatic handguns (FN pistols) and AR-15-styled short-barreled rifles, among other firearms, the press release stated. The FN pistols in particular are weapons of choice for drug trafficking organizations and paramilitary groups because they are easily capable of firing a rifle round of ammunition that can penetrate law enforcement body armor. The pistols are referred to by cartel members in Mexico, South America, Central America and Puerto Rico as “matapolicias,” or “cop killers,” the press release stated. AR-15-styled rifles are popular among the same criminal groups.

“Gun and drug trafficking fuels violence by criminal organizations and threatens the security of the people along our borders and throughout the country,” Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge in Tampa Susan McCormick said.

Firearms involved in the investigation often were smuggled through Honduras and other Central and South American countries before being used in violent crimes in Mexico and other countries in the region, the press release stated. And a number of the firearms trafficked by the defendants in Operation Castaway have been linked to violent crimes around the world.

Several firearms trafficked by Crumpler and Lopez were used in crimes associated with the Torres Sabana Drug Trafficking Organization, a notorious and violent drug trafficking organization in Puerto Rico, the press release stated. Another firearm, a Glock pistol, was recovered in Colombia after being used to commit a homicide. Another firearm was found in the possession of a hitman for Oficina de Envigado, an organization described by the U.S. Department of Treasury as “a violent Medellin-based organized crime group that engages in large-scale drug trafficking and money laundering activities in Colombia.”

“Eliminating this type of organization and taking its high-level weaponry off the streets will increase safety not only for our citizens but for people abroad. I commend the work of the federal agents in bringing this group down, as well as the contributions of our local partner agencies,” U.S. Attorney Brian Albritton said.

Crumpler was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for dealing firearms without a license and unlawfully possessing short-barreled rifles; Carlos Humberto Guillen-Rivera, 29, of Honduras, was sentenced to 84 months in federal prison for conspiring to possess and illegally possessing short-barreled rifles; Cesar Augusto Guillen-Rivera, 31, of Honduras, was sentenced to 65 months in federal prison for conspiring to possess and illegally possessing short-barreled rifles; Erlin Javier Guillen-Rivera, 25, of Honduras, was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison for conspiring to possess and illegally possessing short-barreled rifles; and Hector Saenz, 38, of Honduras, was sentenced to 46 months for conspiracy.

Two additional defendants, Antonia Ruiz-Varela and Manuel Dejesus Carrasco-Ruiz, are still at large. Any information on their whereabouts should be reported to ATF.

Operation Castaway re-mains an ongoing investigation.

“Whenever we can combine resources to achieve a common goal of making our community safer it just makes sense,” Hansell said. “Strong agency partnerships are invaluable in reducing crime in our community.”