Florida Man Caught Smuggling Firearms to Colombia

Tampa, FL – In a shocking case of international crime, Colombian citizen Jorge Giovanny Gonzalez-Lopez (42) has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to smuggle firearms from the United States to Colombia.

According to court documents, Gonzalez-Lopez traveled to Florida in late 2017 and again in early 2018, where he acquired firearms, including assault rifles, and then illegally exported them from Clearwater, Tampa, and Kissimmee, Florida, to Colombia.

Gonzalez-Lopez and his co-conspirators attempted to obliterate the serial numbers on some of the firearms so that they could not be traced. Neither Gonzalez-Lopez nor his co-conspirators applied for or obtained the necessary licenses for exporting defense articles as required by federal law.

Gonzalez-Lopez was extradited from Colombia to the United States in February 2024 and has been in custody since that time. His sentencing hearing is expected to be set in the next 90 days.

Gonzalez-Lopez faces a maximum term of five years in federal prison and three years of supervised release, although he is expected to be removed from the United States at the completion of his prison sentence.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, with assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Colombia’s Policía Fiscal y Aduanera (POLFA), a unit of the National Police of Colombia.

Assistant United States Attorney E. Jackson Boggs, Jr. is prosecuting the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and the Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section’s Office of the Judicial Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá worked with Colombian authorities to secure the arrest and extradition of Gonzalez-Lopez.

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