As part of an undercover operation, federal agents bought 15 guns, 58 devices used to convert conventional firearms into machine guns and 57 grams of cocaine from three alleged Sureños gang members in Salem and Portland over the last five months, prosecutors said.
Cesar Daniel Arevalo, 36, Jose Luis Diaz-Ceballos, 24, and 35-year-old Jose Luis Brown-Ceballos were arrested this week and made their first appearances in federal court in Portland Monday afternoon.
The Sureños are loosely-affiliated street gangs with roots in southern California.
Agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives made the undercover gun buys from the accused between July and November, according to a federal affidavit unsealed Monday.
On July 16, Arevalo proposed to meet one of the undercover agents in Portland, texting that he’d be arriving in a green Infiniti.
When Arevalo arrived at the meet-up location, he retrieved a white bag from the trunk of his Infiniti and showed the undercover agent, saying: “There’s an AR, and AK, and that little .22,” according to the affidavit.
The agent then paid him $3,200 for the three firearms – a .22-caliber gun, a Ruger rifle and an AM-15 rifle, the affidavit said.
On Nov. 10, the undercover agent met with Arevalo’s alleged associate, Diaz-Ceballos, who sold a short-barreled rifle, a .45-caliber pistol, four machine-gun conversion devices for AR-style rifles and one machine-gun conversion device for Glock handguns, the affidavit said.
Diaz-Ceballos also agreed to help provide what Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Bockelman called armed security for undercover agents who said they were receiving more than 10 pounds of methamphetamine.
All three men were accused of being felons in possession of firearms.
Brown-Ceballos was the only one of the three released pending trial, with drug-testing conditions.
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