San Diego, California – Federal authorities have charged three San Diego County men with a series of serious firearms and narcotics offenses after a months-long undercover operation revealed a pipeline of illegal guns and fentanyl, some allegedly destined for Mexico.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the defendants—19-year-old Angel Flores and 27-year-old Daniel Zambrano, both of Vista, and 29-year-old Ruben Ivan Rubio of Chula Vista—were arrested Tuesday following a string of covert purchases by federal agents posing as traffickers. Over a span of nearly a year, from June 2024 to April 2025, the trio allegedly sold 40 firearms to agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Some of the guns had no serial numbers. Others, prosecutors say, were machine guns.
In multiple transactions, prosecutors say the men were explicitly told that the firearms would be smuggled into Mexico. The implication: these weapons weren’t meant for collectors or local gangs, but for cartels across the border—a suggestion that didn’t appear to slow down the sales. The men are also accused of trafficking methamphetamine and fentanyl, including one deal involving 1,000 counterfeit pills laced with the synthetic opioid that has fueled the nation’s overdose crisis.
The case underscores the tangled relationship between America’s gun market and the Mexican drug war. While much of the focus on cross-border trafficking tends to spotlight narcotics flowing north, U.S. firearms often flow in the opposite direction. Weapons like the ones sold in this sting—unregistered, high-powered, and untraceable—can be used to arm criminal groups that thrive in the vacuum of state authority. In that context, a series of sales in Vista and Chula Vista become more than a local bust; they point to a much larger ecosystem of trade, violence, and impunity.
The suspects have been charged with dealing firearms without a license, possessing machine guns, and distributing both methamphetamine and fentanyl. Their initial detention hearings are scheduled for Friday morning in federal court in downtown San Diego. If convicted, they face lengthy federal prison sentences.
The details of the sting remain sparse, and authorities have not said whether other arrests are expected. Still, the case already illustrates how easily high-powered weapons and lethal drugs can pass through the hands of small-time dealers, and how that activity ripples outward—from suburban garages in Southern California to the front lines of Mexico’s cartel wars.
