Press Release
NAPLES WOMAN CONVICTED OF ILLEGAL GUN EXPORTS TO HONDURAS
March 23, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Two Defendants Remain Fugitives
R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Anthony V. Mangione, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Office of Investigations, and Hugo Barrera, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, announced that a Fort Lauderdale jury found defendant Jenny Mejia de Hernandez, of Naples, FL, guilty on a five count Indictment charging her with conspiracy and substantive counts related to delivering firearms to a common carrier for export and exporting firearms to Honduras. Sentencing is scheduled before U.S. District Judge James I. Cohn for May 29, 2009. Two of Mejia de Hernandez’ brothers, Mario and Dixon Mejia, were also named in the Indictment. They are fugitives.
According to the evidence presented during trial, from December 2006 through March 2008, Mejia de Hernandez and her two brothers traveled to Miami and purchased more than one hundred high-powered firearms from Miami-area gun dealers. The majority of the family's purchases were of a pistol version of the AR-15 assault rifle and the sidearm accompaniment to the FN PS90, a weapon designed to fire a round capable of piercing Soviet body armor. These weapons can be sold in Honduras for several times their purchase price in the United States.
The case was initiated when, acting on information provided by a local federally licensed firearms dealer, ATF and ICE agents searched a sofa delivered by Mario Mejia to a Miami area cargo shipper. Agents found seven firearms hidden inside the sofa. After discovering the weapons inside the sofa, agents alerted Honduran law enforcement officers, who seized an additional three firearms from a television shipped through the same company.
Mr. Acosta commended the investigative efforts of ATF and ICE’s Office of Investigations. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Scott M. Edenfield, Kelly S. Karase, and James M. Koukios.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
Technical comments about this website can be e-mailed to the Webmaster. PLEASE NOTE: The United States Attorney's Office does not respond to non-technical inquiries made to this website. If you wish to make a request for information, you may contact our office at 305-961-9001, or you may send a written inquiry to the United States Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida, 99 NE 4th Street, Miami, Fl. 33132.