FBI arrests woman accused of ordering US guns for Mexico border smugglers

Daniel Borunda, El Paso Times

The FBI agents in El Paso recently arrested a woman accused of taking part in a border smuggling group that sent fentanyl, cocaine and meth north to the United States and AK-47 rifles, grenades and guns south to Mexico.

Liliana Judith Salaices, 30, wiped away tears as she spoke to her attorney in a courtroom before a detention hearing was waived on Monday morning, May 20, at the federal courthouse in Downtown El Paso. Neither Salaices nor her attorney spoke in court.

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Salaices has been held without bond at the Downtown El Paso County Jail since May 14 when Mexican authorities handed her to the FBI at the borderline at the middle of the Stanton international bridge in Downtown.

Chihuahua state police officers from the strategic operations unit arrested Salaicies, who is a U.S. citizen, on the afternoon of May 14 at a home in Delicias, located south of Chihuahua City.

Liliana Judith Salaices was arrested by FBI agents on federal charges of conspiracy to smuggle drugs and guns over the U.S.-Mexico border after she was handed over by Mexican authorities on May 14 at the Stanton Bridge in Downtown El Paso.
Liliana Judith Salaices was arrested by FBI agents on federal charges of conspiracy to smuggle drugs and guns over the U.S.-Mexico border after she was handed over by Mexican authorities on May 14 at the Stanton Bridge in Downtown El Paso.

Salaices had been wanted in the U.S. on an organized crime case since last year, the Chihuahua Attorney General's Office said. Salaicies was taken to Juárez before being handed to the FBI by Chihuahua state police along with Mexican immigration agents and National Guard soldiers.

In January 2023, a federal grand jury in El Paso indicted Salaices on three counts of conspiracy to possess and distribute drugs and a charge of conspiracy to smuggle goods (firearms) out of the United States.

The indictment accuses Salaices of conspiring with unnamed others in West Texas and Mexico in the smuggling of drugs and firearms over the border between January 2019 and July 2022.

Salaices is accused of conspiring to traffic in methamphetamine, fentanyl and cocaine.

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She is also accused of conspiring to smuggle firearms purchased in the U.S. into Mexico between May 2019 and January 2020.

Salaices "would send orders for firearms to other members of the conspiracy," the indictment alleged. "The orders typically consisted of 9 mm pistols, AR-15 type firearms, AK Type firearms, grenades, grenade launchers, M2 .50 caliber, and M249 type firearms."

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The weapons were to be purchased by others in the U.S. and smuggled to Mexico. The indictment does not mention how many, if any weapons, were seized.

"Those firearms would then be smuggled into Mexico and delivered to (Salaices), or other members of her family," the indictment stated.

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The indictment does not list any other defendants in the conspiracy case. The FBI hasn't announced any other arrests in connection with the drug and firearms smuggling conspiracy.

Mexican National Guard troops hand over Liliana Judith Salaices to FBI agents at the U.S.-Mexico border at the middle of the Stanton international bridge between El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, on May 14.
Mexican National Guard troops hand over Liliana Judith Salaices to FBI agents at the U.S.-Mexico border at the middle of the Stanton international bridge between El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, on May 14.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: FBI arrests woman in El Paso border drug, gun smuggling case

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