Below is the official statement from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida regarding the gun trafficking conspiracy.
TAMPA, Fla. – U.S. District Judge Stephen Merryday sentenced Jonathan Rafael Ortega Martinez, 42, to 10 years in federal prison for gun trafficking and conspiracy to commit gun trafficking. Ortega-Martinez had previously pleaded guilty.
According to the plea agreement, Ortega-Martinez participated in a large-scale gun trafficking operation from 2023 to April 2024. Specifically, he and members of his conspiracy recruited individuals known as “straw buyers” to illegally purchase firearms, including Glocks, rifles, and AK-47s, from licensed federal firearms dealers throughout Florida. After Ortega-Martinez and his co-conspirators obtained the firearms, they smuggled them overseas, shipping them to countries such as the Dominican Republic and Haiti. From 2023 to 2024, Ortega-Martinez and his co-conspirators trafficked more than 1,000 firearms. Investigation revealed that several of these firearms were later recovered at the crime scene.
On April 18, 2024, the Tampa and Orlando Bureaus of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Homeland Security Investigations executed three search warrants at three residences in the Orlando area. There, investigators located Ortega-Martinez and recovered approximately 57 firearms, 30 empty gun boxes, approximately $16,000 in cash, ammunition and a currency counter.
In addition to Ortega-Martinez, two other people were charged and convicted of gun trafficking conspiracy. On March 11, 2025, Ricardo Sune Giron, who was in the United States illegally under a false name and was the subject of an Interpol red notice from Guatemala, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for his role in the conspiracy. On July 31, 2025, Maicol Eliud Cepeda García was sentenced to 15 years in prison, the maximum sentence allowed by law, for his role in the conspiracy.
The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Homeland Security Investigations, with assistance from Interpol, Washington. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Diego F. Novaes and Noah Dorman.
