Prosecutor Ryan Raybould has announced that a federal grand jury in the Northern District of Texas has filed a formal indictment with 12 charges against Loyd Walter Hall, a U.S. citizen from the city of Amarillo, for conspiracy to supply firearms to the Sinaloa Cartel. He has also charged three other associates indicted for related crimes: Jesús Quezada Meza, 30 years old, Mexican national and resident of Dumas, Texas, and Omar Velásquez, 44 years old, from Utah, for conspiracy to fraudulently purchase firearms and for firearms trafficking. Additionally, Catlynn Ann Townsend, 29 years old, also from Amarillo, for making a false statement in the information required by a licensed firearms dealer.
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According to the court document, between 2024 and 2026, Hall and his accomplices maintained a business relationship with a member of the Sinaloa Cartel in Chihuahua, Mexico. Through this link, the main accused provided this criminal group with firearms, technical knowledge, and advice on how to evade U.S. law enforcement, despite knowing that the cartel had been designated as a terrorist organization by the Trump Administration since February 2025. “Hall collaborated with co-conspirators, both identified and anonymous, to achieve this goal,” details a fragment of the statement.
The indictment details that Hall and Quezada Meza fraudulently purchased and trafficked a 9mm Glock 19X pistol around November 29, 2024. Prosecutors indicated that the weapon was purchased at Cash America Pawn, a gun store located in the east area of Amarillo. The document also notes that the main suspect made a false statement to Cash America Pawn, a well-known chain of pawn shops in the United States that offers cash loans in exchange for personal items and sells second-hand goods. He claimed that he was the actual buyer of the weapon, when prosecutors found that he was not.
Meza, Velásquez, and Townsend are many of the pawns who have fallen in recent years in this structure of straw purchasers or front men, as people who lend their name, in exchange for a price, for the legal acquisition of weapons for a third party are known. Carlos Pérez Ricart, professor and researcher at the Division of International Studies of the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE), one of the most prestigious universities in Mexico, says that these people are like an ant network of arms trafficking involving at least 50,000 people throughout the United States. Our most consistent figures agree that we are talking about 145,000 weapons entering Mexico annually. That’s about 400 daily,” adds the author of the book Violence Came from the North.
Hall also participated in the fraudulent purchase and trafficking of a .22 caliber Taurus PT22 pistol, around December 7, 2024. The main conspirator and Velásquez also face charges for trafficking a .38 caliber Colt 1911 Government Model pistol, around August 24, 2025. Prosecutors also allege that Hall, Velásquez, and Townsend participated in a false statement related to the same firearm at Wildman Armaments LLC, another gun store in Amarillo.
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The indictment also presents charges against Hall for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances in order to import them into the United States. The file indicates that the drug trafficking charge involved 400 grams or more of fentanyl, five kilograms or more of cocaine, and one kilogram or more of heroin.
If found guilty, Hall faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment in a federal prison. Meza and Velásquez each face up to 15 years of incarceration in a federal facility. Townsend, up to five years of federal prison. “Every firearm trafficked from the United States to a cartel strengthens their ability to terrorize communities, secure drug trafficking operations, participate in acts of corruption, and commit international fuel theft,” stated federal prosecutor Ryan Raybould.
Mexican Secretary of Defense Ricardo Trevilla revealed in February that during President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration, 18,000 long and short firearms have been seized, of which about 78% come from the United States. The authority stated that in just over a year since the president took office, 215 Barrett rifles of caliber 50 have been confiscated, a rifle that, according to various security specialists, has established itself as one of the narco’s favorites in Mexico.
