Edgar De La Cruz, Interstate Gun Trafficking, California 2017

OAKLAND – In a shocking turn of events, 19-year-old Oakland resident Edgar De La Cruz pleaded guilty to his role in an interstate firearms trafficking conspiracy announced United States Attorney Brian J. Stretch and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) Special Agent in Charge Jill Snyder.

De La Cruz admitted to participating in an armed robbery and acknowledged possessing cocaine and marijuana for sale. The plea was accepted by the Honorable Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr., U.S. District Judge.

According to the plea agreement, De La Cruz was involved in a conspiracy to engage in the business of dealing in firearms without a license from at least March 2015 until his arrest in January 2017. He acknowledged that he agreed with two or more people to purchase firearms in the Reno, Nevada, area for sale in Oakland.

De La Cruz then picked up the guns, brought them to Oakland, and resold them to others for a profit. He admitted that the conspiracy was responsible for trafficking more than 60 firearms from Reno to Oakland.

De La Cruz also pleaded guilty to armed robbery, admitting that on November 21, 2015, he committed the armed robbery of an Oakland gas station. He and an accomplice were both carrying guns when they entered the gas station store and demanded cash from the cash registers at gunpoint.

The maximum statutory penalty for robbery affecting interstate commerce is 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and 3 years of supervised release. The maximum statutory penalty for carrying and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence is life in prison (with a 7-year mandatory minimum, consecutive to sentence imposed on any other count), a $250,000 fine, and 5 years of supervised release.

Judge Gilliam has scheduled De La Cruz’s sentencing for November 13, 2017, at 2 p.m.

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