A 58-year-old Luling man will be keeping his nose clean for the next few years.
Thursday Alfred Dwight Watkins was sentenced to ten months in federal prison for dealing firearms without a license. After his prison sentence he will be under supervised release for three additional years.
The judge also ordered him to pay a $11,232 fine.
Last August Watkins admitted to selling firearms at Austin and San Antonio gun shows even though his license had expired in 2003. According to authorities, Watkins admitted that in order to 'flip' more firearms he mislead customers by telling them they didn't need paperwork for the transactions. He also admitted that he sold a $600 firearm to a person who was legally prohibited from possessing a firearm.
But that was not the end of it.
During a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) investigation, agents uncovered a link between Watkins and the Mexican drug cartel, Los Zetas. According to the report, Watkins admitted he had purchased a firearm that Mexican authorities recovered three weeks later from the drug cartel.
Following a search of Watkins' home in March, ATF agents confiscated 65 firearms, including a dozen assault rifles, plus approximately 59,000 rounds of ammunition. All of the firearms and ammunition found were forfeited to the government as part of Watkins' guilty plea.
