The bricklayer Luis Alberto “el Rengo” Miguel (73 years old) was sentenced to three years of conditional prison for the illegal collection of almost fifty weapons and almost 200 ammunition, after it was discovered that he had the arsenal in his home.
In an abbreviated trial, the federal judge of Federal Oral Court No. 1, Jaime Díaz Gavier, acting as a sole proprietor, sentenced Miguel to three years in prison as a conditional execution.
The magistrate valued that the defendant was always at the disposal of the Justice in each summons and always kept his address updated.
He also pondered that in these final instances he had a highly collaborative attitude, acknowledged the existence of the fact and signed the abbreviated trial agreement.
On the other hand, he reached retirement and completes his income by repairing chairs and knives, which allows him to support himself financially, as he stated at the hearing.
The judge also took into account that Miguel does not have a criminal record and has a good neighborly concept, so Díaz Gavier concluded that the man maintained his good behavior.
The case
The case began on September 3, 2013, when the Laboulaye Control, Minors and Misdemeanors judge, Pablo Actis, ordered a search of one of Miguel’s homes, on Calle 25 de Mayo al 27, in search of a motorcycle. The man let the police in, but they did not locate the shot.
However, they found a surprise: 30 weapons, including revolvers (14), pistols (8), shotguns (4), rifles (3) and carbine (1), in addition to 178 ammunition of different caliber and 20 gun barrels. (of shotguns, carbines, among others).
The elements were scattered in various parts of the house, located five blocks from the police headquarters.
In this case there was a particularity, when the Criminal Secretariat of the Federal Court of Río Cuarto alerted about the lack of a large amount of ammunition and weapons in custody, which led to administrative and criminal summaries.
An antecedent
After the 2013 operation, the police station recalled that Miguel had already accumulated another raid, not only in that direction, but also in Italy at 117, in the latter case, two blocks from the police station. In that raid, carried out in September 2008, the officers had seized 13 weapons in total between the two homes. They found shotguns (3), rifles (4), pistols (1), carbines (2) and revolvers (3).
A report from the Ballistics Division of the Scientific Police of Region III Headquarters concluded that all the weapons had all their parts, which allowed them to infer that they were in a condition to produce shots as a firearm for civilian use.