Three Southern California men accused of smuggling guns from Utah to California

Federal investigators arrested three Southern California men on Wednesday in connection with a scheme to illegally buy more than 120 guns in Utah and then resell them in California, prosecutors said.

Manuel Ivan Sanchez, 37, of Helendale, Ricardo Amezcua, 45, of South Gate, and Fernando Nava, 35, of Hemet, each face one count of conspiracy, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Prosecutors alleged they made multiple short trips to Utah, where they lied on federal forms and used fake identification to buy the guns, then brought them back to California to illegally resell them.

Martin Estrada, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, said such black market firearms are often implicated in violent crimes.

“To protect our communities, it is imperative that we aggressively prosecute those who put us all at risk by trafficking in illegal firearms,” he said.

Sanchez, Amezcua and Nava are accused of traveling to Utah multiple times between November 2022 and July 2024 to purchase 42 handguns and rifles from licensed gun dealers in Utah, according to the Department of Justice expression.

Utah law prohibits gun dealers from selling to California residents, so the suspects lied on federal paperwork and presented illegitimate identification, prosecutors said.

“Each of the defendants obtained either a Utah driver’s license or an identification card with a Utah address,” the statement said. “They then used these fraudulently obtained cards to purchase guns from licensed firearms dealers based in Utah.”

Sanchez is also accused of purchasing 81 more guns in 2023 through an “unofficial online gun exchange based in Utah.”

“Sanchez then advertised to other people the firearms he purchased to sell at high prices,” the Justice Department said in its statement. he said. “In some cases, Sanchez advertised the guns to a middleman who traded guns to others. At the time of the investigation, Sanchez, Amezcua, or Nava never had a license to sell firearms.”

If convicted as charged, each defendant faces up to five years in federal prison.

The incident was investigated by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

This article first appeared in the Victorville Daily Press: Three Southern California men charged with smuggling guns out of Utah