KRGV.com

McALLEN - An Indiana man is accused of supplying weapons to the Gulf cartel. Many of those guns are believed to have entered Mexico through the Rio Grande Valley.

A federal indictment claims Hermion Torres operated a straw-purchase operation throughout the United States and exchanged the weapons for drugs.

Some of those weapons were discovered in the Valley in March, 2011. Border Patrol officials in Fronton found a duffle bag packed with AK-47 and AR-15 type rifles. The bag also contained hundreds of rounds of ammunition and even a grenade launcher.

The indictment claims those weapons were supposed to cross the river into Mexico.

A month before that, Mexican authorities found a Romanian assault rifle in Los Guerra, across the river from Fronton.

Prosecutors claim Torres traded the weapons for methamphetamines, cocaine and marijuana that was later sold in Indiana.