Colombian Citizen Smuggled Guns From FL To Colombia: U.S. DOJ

TAMPA BAY, FL — A Colombian citizen was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison for smuggling guns from the United States to Colombia, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

Jorge Giovanny Gonzalez-Lopez, 42, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release.

He was extradited from Colombia to the U.S. in February and has been in custody since then. He pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle firearms out of the country on July 11.

Gonzalez-Lopez traveled to Florida in late 2017 and again in early 2018.

During these trips, he acquired firearms, including several types of assault rifles, with the help of others, and then illegally exported them from Clearwater, Tampa and Kissimmee to Colombia, the DOJ said.

He and his co-conspirators tried to remove the serial numbers on some of the guns so that they couldn’t be traced.

None of those involved in the scheme applied for or obtained the licenses for exporting guns that are required under U.S. law, the DOJ said.