BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- The Mexican Army on May 3, 2011, stopped a drug suspect in a vehicle after a chase in the city of Florencia de Benito, Juarez, in the central part of that country and found a cache of guns, a grenade launcher, explosives and marijuana.

Among the eight weapons was a Barrett Model 99 .50 caliber BMG rifle purchased six weeks earlier at a Huntsville gun shop, according to U.S. court documents.

In the seven months after that first discovery, the Mexican military uncovered three other stashes of large-caliber guns that included ones bought at Huntsville and Decatur-area gun shops. One stash belonged to the drug cartel Los Zetas, according to court documents.

Guns -- big and small -- purchased in Alabama are making their way to cities south, and sometimes north, of the border. In the case of the guns found in Florencia de Benito, Juarez, the guns that came out of Huntsville and the Decatur area made it more than 1,000 miles before being confiscated.

Federal agents have intensified their efforts to halt the trafficking in recent years, but stopping the practice completely remains a challenge, officials said.

The Alabama cases are not connected to the ATF's Operation Fast and Furious, in which a U.S. House of Representatives committee last week recommended U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder be held in contempt for refusing to turn over documents.

In that operation, ATF's Phoenix field division allowed known "straw buyers" to walk away with guns, over and over again. As a result, the weapons were transferred to criminals and Mexican drug cartels. Some of the guns were later used in violent crimes, including the death of a U.S. border patrol agent.

In Alabama, federal agents tracked the guns to a group of seven people who bought them as "straw buyers" for one man, Gary Lee Madison, according to federal court documents. All eight last month pleaded guilty to making false statements in order to buy firearms. They also have all entered plea agreements with federal prosecutors in north Alabama.

"This was organized gun trafficking," said David Hyche, supervisory agent with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Birmingham. "Nobody wants to see guns get into the hands of violent criminals and drug cartels."

ATF agents were able to quickly stop the operation, Hyche said. "I was extremely proud of our guys," he said.

'Straw buyers'

The case is one of a handful in recent years where guns were bought in "straw purchases" at Alabama gun shops and sent directly to Mexico.

A straw purchase is one in which a person who has a legal right to own a gun buys one and then hands it over to another person who may be forbidden to own one or does not want it known that they have bought a gun. Straw purchases are illegal.

Friends, acquaintances, and relatives bought guns on behalf of Madison, who then carried them to Mexico, prosecutors have charged. Madison also bought weapons, according to the charges.

"During the course of the investigation, it was revealed that Gary Madison had made a number of border crossings in and out of Mexico," according to one court document. "Madison had four border crossings between June 25, 2011, and July 8, 2011."

Madison's attorney declined comment for this story.

The attorney for co-defendant Ruffin Wilkerson Blaylock Jr., 49, of Decatur said his client believed that Madison wanted the guns as part of a plan to form a nationwide company for fugitive recovery. "I feel confident that Ruffin Blaylock had no knowledge of where they wound up," said Blaylock's attorney, Bruce Gardner.

Blaylock, who has been in the bail bond and fugitive recovery business, cooperated "early and often" in the investigation, Gardner said.

A couple of other attorneys for co-defendants in the case said their clients also didn't know what would become of the guns once they handed them over to Madison.

"He had no idea at all that the guns would end up in Mexico and in the hands of drug cartels," said Derrick K. Collins, attorney for Timothy Lynn Osborn, 32, of Madison.

Jim O'Kelley, attorney for Madison's nephew Quentin Donta Hall, 28, of Huntsville said he has been informed there is no evidence his client knew the guns would be taken to Mexico, either. Hall bought four handguns, he said.

"He didn't make a dime off of it ... he did it because his uncle asked him to," O'Kelley said.

Others charged in the case are: Desma Depere Willis, 39, Amanda Dion Osborn, 34, Courtney Kentae Hobbs, 32, and Reggie Ellison, 30, all of Madison. Efforts to reach their attorneys for comment were unsuccessful last week.

Worth more

ATF agents have seen weapons bought in Alabama end up south and north of the border in recent years, possibly because of the potential profits to be had by criminals.

Guns can be worth 300 percent to 400 percent more in both Mexico and Canada than in the United States because of those two country's strict gun laws, Hyche said.

In 2007 federal authorities charged Delores Hernandez of Decatur in a gun trafficking case that involved guns she bought going to Mexico, according to court documents. Hyche said the charges involved at least 198 guns purchased over a four-year period. She pleaded guilty in 2008 and was sentenced to 37 months in prison, according to court records.

Hernandez's husband, Ignacio Hernandez-Fernandez, was charged in 2007 after he tried to cross the border into Mexico with 14 handguns in a spare tire, according to court documents. He was charged in Texas but skipped bail and has not been re-arrested since.

In 2007, a group of people in Alabama was arrested as part of a three-state operation -- involving Alabama, Georgia and Florida -- to smuggle guns into Canada, according to court documents. Two men identified as leaders of the group would buy or have someone else buy firearms and hire drivers to deliver them in rental cars to Canada, exchange the firearms for drugs or money and drive them back into the United States, according to federal prosecutors and court records.

In 2010, two men were arrested after they met undercover agents at a Birmingham-area hotel to pay nearly $25,000 for a fully-automatic 40mm grenade launcher -- the type that would be mounted on a tripod or vehicle.

Agents believe that the grenade launcher was intended to be taken south of the U.S. border, Hyche said. "We can't prove that it was going to a drug cartel, but it's pretty obvious," he said.

The Hernandez, Canadian operation and grenade launcher cases all began with tips from a gun shop, Hyche said. And in the Madison case, the gun shops also helped, according to court documents.

The vast majority of gun dealers are licensed and often are the best resources for information, Hyche said. "If it weren't for the legitimate dealers it would be much more difficult to make these trafficking cases," he said.

"We're at odds with the crooks, not the legitimate gun dealers and collectors," Hyche said.

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