FEDERAL INDICTMENTS
2 Men Accused of Bringing Weapons Into Md.
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Wednesday, May 21, 2008; Page B03
A federal grand jury in Greenbelt has indicted two men on charges of conspiring to sell firearms without a license and illegally bringing almost two dozen handguns and five AK-47 assault rifles into Maryland.
Moises Castillo Jr., of Tarrant, Ala., and Otis Gomez-Zapata, of the Bronx, N.Y., were arrested Friday, Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said in a statement.
They were accused of bringing the guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition from Alabama to Maryland. Castillo, 25, is accused of advising two purchasers -- who were confidential informants working for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives -- to obliterate the serial numbers on the weapons.
Most of the weapons were purchased in pawn shops in Alabama, the indictment alleges. The informants who made the purchases turned the weapons and ammunition over to federal agents, according to the court papers.
Neither Castillo nor Gomez-Zapata, 28, is a licensed firearms dealer, and neither of the men was authorized to purchase weapons and transport them across state lines, according to court papers.
"Guns that are brought to Maryland illegally are often used by criminals who can't buy guns from licensed dealers and want guns that cannot be traced back to them by law enforcement authorities," Rosenstein said in the statement.
Castillo was arrested in Alabama, and Gomez-Zapata was arrested in New York, said Marcia Murphy, a spokeswoman for Rosenstein's office. Castillo, who does not yet have an attorney for the federal charges in Maryland, is expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt within a week or so, she said.
Gomez-Zapata, who is scheduled to appear today in state court in New York for a hearing on unrelated drug charges, also does not have an attorney for the federal gun charges in Maryland, Murphy said.
