Ex-DEA agent pleads guilty to arms trafficking

Ex-DEA agent pleads guilty to arms trafficking

June 13, 2008 - 6:25PM
Jeremy Roebuck

A former Drug Enforcement Administration agent, who once criticized U.S. involvement in Central America, pleaded guilty Friday to weapons trafficking charges.

Celerino Castillo III, 58, of McAllen, told a federal court in San Antonio that he obtained dozens of pistols and rifles for buyers outside of the United States between December 2006 and March of this year.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested Castillo on March 6, a month after agents observed him pay another man to purchase guns for him at an Austin gun show, according to a criminal complaint filed in his case.

Cooperating informants later linked him to 29 similar purchases. Federal law prohibits third parties from buying firearms as a proxy for the actual owner.

Castillo, a Pharr native and former Edinburg police officer, retired from the DEA in 1992, after years of service in Central America during the region's violent 1980s.

During a 1993 investigation of the U.S. efforts in the region, he alleged that federal agents overlooked and in some cases lied about human rights abuses and drug smuggling operations being run by their Central American partners.

If convicted in his current case, Castillo could face up to 15 years in prison and $500,000 in fines.

Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.

http://www.themonitor.com/articles/castillo_13168___article.html/central_federal.html