Guatemalan Man Sentenced for Gun Trafficking
A federal judge has sentenced a 29-year-old Guatemalan man, Lester Ramos Perez, to 78 months in prison for his involvement in a gun trafficking scheme that aimed to transport firearms from Alabama to Maryland. This incident came to light through an investigation that linked him to a wider conspiracy.
U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Maddox imposed the sentence, which includes an additional year of supervised release. Ramos Perez, who is in the U.S. illegally, was found guilty of participating in gun trafficking and illegally possessing a firearm, as his immigration status bars him from gun ownership.
He entered a guilty plea in July 2024 after being charged with conspiracy, which followed suspicions raised by agents from the ATF and HSI regarding illegal firearm transactions involving Guatemalan nationals. Investigators noted that Ramos Perez moved to Waldorf, Maryland, in September 2024.
In March 2025, he and several others, including 20-year-old Vielman Cabrera Arevalo and 23-year-old Eric Lozano Colindres, were indicted on various federal firearm offenses as investigations into arms trafficking wrapped up.
The inquiry revealed that Ramos Perez and his associates were engaged in selling firearms through monitored transactions across Alabama and Maryland. He was actively involved in coordinating these illegal sales and moving guns across state lines.
Authorities reported that two firearms owned by Ramos Perez and sold to an undercover officer were stolen and classified as machine guns. The undercover agent had also informed him about selling guns to individuals with criminal histories, who would then procure firearms for others. Despite being aware of this, Ramos Perez continued to engage in these transactions under observation.
The investigation was carried out by several federal law enforcement agencies as part of the Homeland Security Task Force, which aims to tackle criminal organizations, including cartels and human trafficking networks both in the U.S. and abroad.
