LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An Oklahoma man was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison Wednesday for conspiring to smuggle guns through Arkansas to Mexican drug cartels.
In a statement, federal prosecutors said Andrew Scott Pierson was sentenced in Little Rock, Arkansas, for his Nov. 9 guilty plea. The 46-year-old Jay, Oklahoma, man faced up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $1 million at sentencing.
In 2017, an unidentified Arkansas man reported receiving firearm components to process that he recognized as counterfeit. Federal agents traced them to a Laredo, Texas, organization smuggling the parts to Pierson in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.
Pierson turned himself over to federal agents at the Laredo port of entry in December 2018 and admitted to ordering and receiving firearm parts from the United States and manufacturing automatic weapons in Mexico for the Northeastern and Jalisco New Generation cartels. Law enforcement later confirmed that Pierson’s arrest impaired cartel firearm availability, prosecutors said.
Five co-defendants have previously pleaded guilty, and one co-defendant remains a fugitive in Mexico, according to prosecutors.
