The 0.50-caliber gun used by the Mexican Jalisco cartel to shoot down a Mexican military helicopter in 2015 came from a gun supplier in Portland, Oregon, a joint Mexico-US investigation has found.
On Wednesday, the Louisville Courier Journal reported confirmation of the connection between the incident and Portland, Oregon by federal firearm officials.
The investigation found that Erik Flores Elortegui, a 40-year-old Mexican native and US citizen, was responsible for providing the Jalisco cartel, also known as Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación, or CJNG, with the belt-fed semiautomatic weapon.
The gun was used to blast down the Mexican military helicopter on 1 May 2015 during which several Mexican national defense soldiers were on a covert mission to arrest Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes or El Mencho, the world’s top cartel boss.
The failed mission resulted in the deaths of nine Mexican law enforcement officers and numerous others injured when cartel members fired the gun into the helicopter’s rotor, causing it to combust into flames and spin several times in the air before it hit the ground.
As a result of the incident, the Mexican attorney general asked the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to trace the origins of the machine gun.
“After it was recovered, we obtained information, and we were able to trace it back to Erik Flores,” Jason Chudy, a spokesperson for the ATF’s Seattle field division, which also covers Oregon, told the Courier Journal.
Elortegui is currently on the ATF’s Most Wanted list. On the ATF website, Elortegui is listed as being indicted in the US district court of Oregon in 2015 for false statements in connection with the acquisition of firearms and smuggling goods from the US.
According to the indictment reviewed by the Courier Journal, ATF found that Elortegui purchased the $15,350 (£13,264) gun at a gun shop in Rainier, a city in Washington state. The indictment alleges that Elortegui lied on the ATF form and indicated that he wanted the weapon for himself. On the form, he also listed his home as Beaverton, Oregon, a city located 7 miles (11km) west of Portland.
According to the ATF, Elortegui was born in Durango, Mexico, and became an American citizen in 2009. Court records reviewed by the Courier Journal reveal that the ATF was already investigating him and another individual for making various straw purchases of weapons and accessories in 2013 and 2014, as well as illegally exporting the weapons.
Elortegui remains at large.
