Pubdate: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA) Copyright: 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. Contact: PO Box 120191, San Diego, CA, 92112-0191 Fax: (619) 293-1440 Website: http://www.uniontrib.com/ Forum: http://www.uniontrib.com/cgi-bin/WebX Author: Marisa Taylor and Dave Hasemyer, Staff Writers FEDERAL AGENTS SEIZE 800 GUNS; 3 SUSPECTS ARRESTED More than 800 guns have been seized from a group of men, accused of being firearms traffickers, who may be linked to a Mexican drug cartel, federal officials said. The seizures are part of a wide-ranging investigation into illegal gun sales to drug traffickers that include weapons connected to killings in Mexico. The cache of automatic and semiautomatic weapons was found in El Cajon, in two commercial storage sheds searched Friday and Saturday by agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. On Friday, three men were arrested in San Ysidro on charges of conspiring to alter and remove serial numbers from the guns in order to sell them illegally. One of those arrested was Adolfo Macial-Carrillo, who told agents he had converted weapons for members of the Arellano-Felix cartel, according to federal sources. The Tijuana-based cartel is reputed to control major drug routes from Baja California into San Diego. Another in the trio was Thomas Conny Foster, 26, whose father was indicted in April for using a false federal firearms license to buy 80 rifles and 15 other firearms from the former owners of an Escondido gun shop, Everett Eugene Welch and Welch's mother, Loretta. Federal agents have connected two of those rifles to the 1998 slaughter of 19 men, women and children outside Ensenada. Weapons sold by the Welches were also linked to the 1996 slayings of Mexican soldiers in Zapopan, Mexico, and to a shootout in Culiacan between Mexican officials and suspected drug traffickers. Everett Eugene Welch killed himself two weeks ago, blaming the ATF for unjustly harassing him. The elder Foster and Loretta Welch are scheduled to go to trial Aug. 29. Loretta Welch said that if any of the guns sold through the Welches' Shooter's Emporium are discovered among this new cache of weapons, there is an explanation: Thomas Foster had picked up some guns from her son for what she said was a legitimate sale. "It wasn't anything unusual to have one (dealer) pick up for another," she said in an interview. "The license was in order, so Tom took the guns." The latest weapons case was launched in December 1999 when an undercover agent talked with the third man arrested in the investigation -- Gabriel Martnez-Ramrez -- about buying machine guns and silencers, according to court records. The attorney for Martnez-Ramrez declined to comment, as did lawyers representing the other two men. During the next eight months, Martnez-Ramrez sold the agent three pistols, 26 assault rifles and one pound of methamphetamine, according to court records. Martnez-Ramrez received about $50,000 for the weapons. Agents said nine of the rifles were converted to machine guns by Macial-Carrillo, who also removed the serial numbers. Turning an AK-47 into a machine gun has little purpose other than to kill people, said Luis Tolley, Western director for Handgun Control, an organization dedicated to reducing gun violence. "I'm not aware of any sporting or recreational purpose for fully automatic weapons," he said. "With those guns you're taking on a police force or the military or some other well-armed organizations." By converting a semiautomatic into a machine gun, Tolley said, the difference in firing capacity is like "going from extremely fast to very, very fast." A 30-round magazine can be emptied in less than 10 seconds, he said. In his meetings with the undercover agent, Martnez-Ramrez identified Thomas Foster as the source of the weapons, court documents said. Martnez-Ramrez later introduced the agent to Macial-Carrillo. On July 25, Martnez-Ramrez told the undercover agent that he had 500 guns available for immediate sale. But instead of buying the guns, agents moved in and arrested the three men. After his arrest, Martnez-Ramrez, 35, claimed that Thomas Foster had set the sale price of the weapons, which federal sources said was $250,000. Martnez-Ramrez said he would have made as much as $4,000 from the sale. He also said Thomas Foster had warned him to make sure the undercover agent wasn't a cop. Foster, Martnez-Ramrez and Macial-Carrillo are scheduled to appear today before a federal magistrate, who will rule on whether to release them on bond. Federal prosecutors argued in court documents that the men should not be released because they are dangerous and could flee the country. Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne Perry, the prosecutor in the case, declined to comment. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D