TUCSON, Ariz. – On Tuesday, Juan Carlos Rubio, 26, of Tucson, Arizona, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John C. Hinderaker to 30 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release. Rubio previously pleaded guilty to four counts of Conspiracy to Smuggle Goods from the United States, Smuggling Goods from the United States, False Statements in Connection with Acquisition of Firearm, and Aiding and Abetting False Statements in Connection with Acquisition of Firearm.
In early 2020, Rubio, a former Arizona Department of Corrections Officer, conspired with others to smuggle three firearms and 500 AK-type rifle magazines from the United States to Mexico. On January 18, 2020, Rubio also lied while purchasing a firearm from a licensed dealer, claiming on the required paperwork that he was buying the gun for himself, when he was actually purchasing it for someone else. On February 18, 2020, Rubio aided and abetted a third party in making a similar false statement to a licensed dealer while purchasing a firearm on Rubio’s behalf.
This case was prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives conducted the investigation in this case, with assistance from Custom and Border Protection’s U.S. Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations. The United States Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, Tucson handled the prosecution.
CASE NUMBER: CR-20-2526-TUC-JCH (EJM)
RELEASE NUMBER: 2022-097_Rubio
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