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21 Members Of Border Gun Running Ring Indicted

Twenty-one people have been indicted in a weapons trafficking case that stretched across Arizona and into Mexico.

The gun-running ring is accused of attempting to smuggle 100 weapons and about 80,000 rounds of ammunition into Mexico.

A federal grand jury alleges that 21 people started buying the guns in Glendale in early 2015. According to the 30-page indictment, the ring bought semiautomatic weapons in Glendale, Phoenix, Apache Junction, and Tucson.

These were what federal agents call straw purchases where one person buys weapons from a licensed dealer for another person.

So far, 19 of the 21 people named in the indictment have been arrested.

Michel Marizco was senior editor of KJZZ's Fronteras Desk from 2016 to 2025.