Michael Mares, Firearms Trafficking, Texas 2011

Former Police Officer Sentenced to Prison for Firearms Trafficking in Texas

HOUSTON - Michael Mares, a 51-year-old former officer with the Onalaska Police Department, has been ordered to federal prison for providing firearms to a convicted felon, announced United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson.

Mares pleaded guilty, admitting he knowingly sold a firearm and various police items to a convicted felon who was planning a home invasion in which he and others planned on impersonating police officers.

On August 30, 2011, a FBI confidential source met with Mares and provided him with $1000 to purchase a firearm, five police t-shirts and police strobe lights. The source told Mares that he was a convicted felon. The source further noted he and others were going to conduct a home invasion of a narcotics trafficker and intended to impersonate police officers in order to gain control of the residence. Mares agreed to purchase the items for him.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas ordered Mares to serve a term of 37 months in federal prison. At the hearing, the court admonished Mares that when police officers arrive at a home, citizens rely on them actually being police officers and that Mares helped others who intended to abuse that trust to commit crimes.

The investigation culminated in the indictment of 25 members and associates of the Texas Mexican Mafia charged with drug trafficking, various firearms offenses and violent crimes in aid of racketeering.

The four-year investigation was conducted by the FBI, Texas Department of Public Safety, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Houston Police Department. Assistant United States Attorneys Tim S. Braley and Mark Donnelly are prosecuting.

Mares has been and will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/former-police-officer-sent-federal-prison