Texas, United States.- A man who admitted buying firearms he knew would go from the United States to a drug cartel in Mexico has been arrested in Texas after it was discovered that one of the weapons was linked to the recent kidnapping of four Americans, according to court documents.
Roberto Lugardo Moreno had an initial appearance Monday in federal court in Brownsville and was assigned a public defender, who did not immediately respond to a voicemail message left seeking comment. His detention hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
The kidnapping occurred in Matamoros, Mexico, which borders Brownsville.
According to a federal complaint filed Saturday, Lugardo Moreno was charged with conspiring to illegally export a firearm. The complaint states that he admitted to buying firearms for people he knew were going to turn them over to a member of the Gulf Cartel in Mexico.
The serial number on a firearm he purchased in October 2019 matches that of a gun recovered by authorities that was linked to the March 3 kidnappings, according to the complaint. Lugardo Moreno said he did not apply for a license to export the firearm from the United States to Mexico and knew it would be exported illegally, according to the complaint.
Lugardo Moreno told authorities that he received $100 for the purchase of the firearms.
Four friends who traveled to Mexico for plastic surgery on one of them were caught up in a shootout by drug dealers in Matamoros. After a vehicle crashed into their truck, men in tactical vests with semi-automatic rifles arrived in another vehicle and surrounded them.
It appears Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown died instantly and their bodies were loaded into the van with the two survivors, Eric Williams and Latavia McGee. Days later, the bodies and the two friends alive were found in a hut.
