U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday has sentenced Jonathan Rafael Ortega Martinez, 42, to 10 years in federal prison for conspiracy to traffic firearms and trafficking in firearms. Ortega Martinez had previously pleaded guilty.
Court documents state that between 2023 and April 2024, Ortega Martinez participated in a firearms trafficking operation. He and co-conspirators recruited straw purchasers to buy firearms, including Glocks, rifles, and AK-47s, from licensed dealers in Florida. The firearms were then smuggled overseas to the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
The operation trafficked more than 1,000 firearms during this period. Several of the trafficked firearms were recovered at crime scenes.
On April 18, 2024, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and Homeland Security Investigations executed search warrants at three residences in the Orlando area. Agents located Ortega Martinez and seized approximately 57 firearms, 30 empty gun boxes, about $16,000 in cash, ammunition, and money counters.
Two co-conspirators were also convicted. Ricardo Sune Giron, who was in the United States illegally under an assumed name and subject to an active INTERPOL Red Notice from Guatemala, was sentenced on March 11, 2025, to 14 years in prison. Maicor Eliud Cepeda-Garcia was sentenced on July 31, 2025, to 15 years in prison, the maximum allowed under the law.
The case was investigated by ATF and Homeland Security Investigations, with assistance from INTERPOL Washington. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Diego F. Novaes and Noah Dorman.
Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Florida
