The leader of a militia group that captured migrants at gunpoint along the U.S.-Mexico border has pleaded guilty to a federal weapons charge.

With the charge — one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm — Larry Hopkins, leader of the United Constitutional Patriots (UCP), faces up to 10 years in prison, The Washington Post reported.

The plea agreement, which was introduced Thursday in U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, must still be approved by a federal judge.

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Hopkins's lawyer Kelly O'Connell says that the plea deal was accepted because of Hopkins's health concerns. According to the Post, Hopkins was jumped by other inmates shortly after being arrested. O'Connell also said that Hopkins, 70, was concerned that he had developed heart problems.

The weapons charge didn't come directly from a video that surfaced less than a year ago of UCP members holding up migrants at the border but rather because of weapons found in Hopkins's New Mexico home in the fall of 2017.

Inside his house, authorities found nine firearms, including several rifles.

Hopkins had been previously convicted of impersonating an officer and felony possession of a firearm. As a result, he was barred from owning guns, according to the Post. He was initially charged by federal prosecutors in April 2019.

Although U.S. Customs and Border Protection has discouraged private militia groups such as UCP from "taking enforcement matters into their own hands," UCP and other militia groups began patrolling the border last year.

UCP's Facebook page says that its goal is to “uphold the Constitution of The United States of America” and to protect “against all enemies both foreign and domestic.”