Guatemalan man arrested in cross-border arms case
Original reporting: El País México
What happened
El País México reports that Gregorio Gómez Paiz was arrested near the Guatemala-Mexico border and was allegedly tied by Guatemalan authorities and a military source to a transnational arms network.
Reporting and context
El País México reports that Guatemalan national Gregorio Gómez Paiz was arrested Saturday by Mexican army personnel and Guatemala’s National Civil Police (PNC) in a cross-border case involving alleged arms trafficking. The report says Gómez was identified as responsible for receiving weapons from the United States and moving them through a criminal corridor in Chiapas toward Guatemala. El País México says the arrest followed surveillance in the Sierra Mariscal area of Chiapas and a pursuit that ended in Las Espuelas, in the municipality of La Democracia, Huehuetenango, near the Mexican border.
According to the Guatemalan Ministry of the Interior, Gómez, 44, allegedly headed a transnational organization with direct links to the Sinaloa Cartel in Chiapas, Tabasco and Oaxaca. The ministry said he coordinated the receipt of U.S.-origin weapons and their delivery, on request, to criminal cells in Guatemala and southeastern Mexico. A Guatemalan military source cited by El País México alleged that Gómez supplied weapons to a Sinaloa Cartel cell in La Trinitaria, Chiapas, from where arms were distributed to other municipalities.
El País México reports that Gómez had been sought by Mexican and Guatemalan authorities and had active arrest warrants related to unlawful detention, assault and aggravated homicide. Guatemalan authorities previously identified him in connection with a 2024 weapons seizure in Puerto Barrios, where 13 high-powered rifles and magazines were found in a trunk. The article also cites recent statements by prosecutors about maritime arms routes between Guatemala and Mexico, including an operation in Tapachula that resulted in four arrests and the seizure of at least 14 boats.