EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The Drug Enforcement Administration El Paso Division assisted in an investigation regarding the alleged use of stash houses in El Paso connected to firearms and narcotics trafficking.
Two Mexican nationals pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including smuggling and providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, specifically, the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), according to a news release from the Department of Justice.
Court documents reported that 40-year-old Maria Del Rosario Navarro-Sanchez and others planned to provide material support to CJNG by trafficking firearms from the U.S. to Mexico.
Navarro-Sanchez admitted that she agreed to bring individuals from Mexico to the U.S illegally.
At least one of these individuals managed some of Navarro-Sanchez’s stash houses in El Paso where Navarro-Sanchez would warehouse firearms and narcotics, the DOJ said.
Officials said Navarro-Sanchez negotiated a deal to purchase 20 AK-47-style weapons and two .50-caliber rifles from undercover agents.
Co-conspirator Gustavo Castro-Medina, 29, acknowledged that the firearms were intended to be illegally exported from the U.S. into Mexico to progress drug trafficking crimes.
Castro-Medina acted as a middleman to help transfer $3,000 in U.S. cash as a down payment for firearms and transport.
On Aug. 21, 2023, two co-conspirators of Navarro-Sanchez and Castro-Medina arrived at a designated meeting point in El Paso to pay the remaining $60,000 in cash and take possession of the firearms.
Once the cash was exchanged, the undercover agents turned over possession of the firearms to the pair. The two co-conspirators were then arrested by waiting agents, the DOJ said.
Castro-Medina also admitted that he was stopped by U.S. Border Patrol in November 2020, when agents found several tape-wrapped bundles of crystal methamphetamine covered in transmission fluid. The total weight of the methamphetamine was 36.36 kilograms.
Navarro-Sanchez, Castro-Medina, and their co-conspirators were indicted in April 2025.
Navarro-Sanchez pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, conspiracy to engage in firearms trafficking, conspiracy to bring aliens, and conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
Navarro-Sanchez faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Castro-Medina pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and one count of conspiracy to engage in firearms trafficking.
Castro-Medina faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison.
“This is but two more guilty pleas added in DEA’s long and sustained efforts against CJNG and its supporters,” Special Agent in Charge Robert “Eric” Castañeda of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) El Paso Division said. “Charges now carry more weight under CJNG’s designation as a foreign terrorist organization. Anyone seeking to profit from the deaths of Americans, no matter their level of involvement, will be brought to justice.”
Sentencing dates for both individuals have not been set. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, DEA, and Homeland Security Investigations in El Paso, assisted by the U.S. Border Patrol, investigated the case, officials said.
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