READING, Pa. – Authorities in Berks County are accusing a Reading man of making multiple straw purchases of handguns.<\/p>\n
Joel Mendoza-Diaz, 26, is charged with multiple counts of sale or transfer of firearms-materially false written statement ( a felony) and unsworn falsification to authorities (a misdemeanor), according to a news release from the Berks County District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
A straw purchase happens when a person purchases a firearm on behalf of another person while falsely claiming to be the actual purchaser, Berks County District Attorney John T. Adams said.<\/p>\n
The investigation began in February 2026 after law enforcement recovered several firearms during unrelated criminal investigations that had been purchased by Mendoza-Diaz, the DA\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
The DA\u2019s office said detectives then identified a pattern of firearm purchases that led to the investigation.<\/p>\n
During an interview with detectives on March 25, Mendoza-Diaz admitted to purchasing multiple firearms from federally licensed firearms dealers in Berks County on behalf of another person, according to the news release.<\/p>\n
According to the DA\u2019s office, Mendoza-Diaz falsely represented on federally required firearm purchase forms that he was the actual buyer of the firearms when he allegedly intended to transfer them to another person.<\/p>\n
The investigation determined that between April and July 2025, Mendoza-Diaz allegedly purchased five Glock handguns during three separate transactions at licensed firearm dealers in Berks, the DA\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
The DA\u2019s office said detectives learned that he later supplied them to another person, constituting illegal straw purchases under Pennsylvania law.<\/p>\n
Mendoza-Diaz was processed by the Berks County Sheriff’s Department, and bail was set at $50,000, the DA\u2019s office said. He was later released after posting bond.<\/p>\n
The investigation remains ongoing. Anyone with information related to the case is encouraged to contact the Berks County Detectives at 610-478-7171.<\/p>\n
Anonymous tips can also be submitted through Crime Alert Berks County by calling 877-373-9913, using the ALERTBERKS mobile app, or by texting ALERTBERKS and your tip to 847411.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. – Authorities in Berks County are accusing a Reading man of making multiple straw purchases of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,7653,625,100262,128,130,129,100261],"class_list":["post-231894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-firearm","tag-handgun","tag-illegal-arms","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-straw-purchase"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}