“Socalj” for Borderland Beat
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Roberto Lugardo Moreno had an initial appearance Monday in federal court in Brownsville and was assigned a public defender, who did not immediately respond to a voicemail message left seeking comment. His detention hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
According to a federal complaint filed Saturday, Lugardo Moreno was charged with conspiring to illegally export a firearm. The complaint states that he admitted to buying firearms for people he knew were going to turn them over to a member of the Gulf Cartel in Mexico.
The serial number on a firearm he purchased in October 2019 matches that of a gun recovered by authorities that were linked to the March 3 kidnappings and killings, according to the complaint. Lugardo Moreno said he did not apply for a license to export the firearm from the United States to Mexico and knew it would be exported illegally, according to the complaint.
Lugardo Moreno told authorities that he received $100 for purchasing the firearms.
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Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown died instantly and their bodies were loaded into a truck with the two survivors, Eric Williams and Latavia McGee. Days later, the two bodies and the two surviving friends were found in a wooden shack. The alleged perpetrators were then handed over to police after the incident received international attention and the FBI began investigating the shootout and kidnapping.
Weapons Given Up
It was that ‘Diamondback DB15 AR-15 Pistol’ that Roberto had purchased in 2019 knowing that it would be sent to Mexico to help arm the cartels. On March 14, Homeland Security Investigators in Harlingen learned that the same AR-style pistol had been recovered by Mexican authorities and linked to the murders and kidnappings of U.S. citizens on March 3 in Matamoros.