BCSO sheriff unveils restricted gun inventory after predecessor named in alleged machine gun scheme

A Thompson submachine gun, two British machine guns, several MP5s, an Uzi pistol and more than a dozen M4 Bushmasters — weapons of war, some capable of firing 950 bullets a minute, created for battlefields dating back to the 1930s.

They also make up a portion of publicly restricted firearms in the arsenal of the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff John Allen detailed a recent audit of BCSO’s weapon inventory a week after his predecessor was named in a cross-country machine gun importation scheme — saying the restricted guns have been accumulated over the years, were all deemed above board by federal authorities and also no longer used by deputies in the field.

“We are making sure that, not only we are transparent, but that we will not do what has been past practiced here in this office. It’s not acceptable,” he said, referring to allegations that Manuel Gonzales and Rudy Mora, the former sheriff and undersheriff, played a role in a scheme to import machine guns into the country.

“That’s not something that we need to build public trust. It brings too much doubt, specifically, when we have all these problems with gun violence that we’re seeing in our community.”

The allegations surfaced last week that Gonzales and Mora had signed more than 100 letters — each known as a “law letter” — requesting machine guns be imported into the country for demonstration and possible purchase by BCSO.

Automatic weapons have been restricted in the U.S. for decades but can be imported following a written request by a local law enforcement agency, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

But the ATF said the letters signed by Gonzales and Mora were fraudulent, as no demonstrations were expected by BCSO, and part of a larger nationwide scheme to acquire machine guns for resale — some for more than $100,000 — to firearms dealers, gun enthusiasts and collectors.

Gonzales and Mora have not been charged. They have not responded to multiple calls and messages for comment.

The Albuquerque gun store owner for whom they allegedly signed the letters, James Christopher Tafoya, was charged in July with conspiracy to violate federal gun laws, unlawful importation of a firearm and making false statements in firearms records.

The indictment against Tafoya, who owned the now-shuttered JCT Firearms, was unsealed earlier this month.

Tafoya’s gun store had been in the news on two unrelated occasions: once when a burglary netted more than a hundred firearms, many of which are still missing, and again when a Journal report found most of the ATF’s charged straw purchasing offenses originated there.

Also charged in the sprawling case, which is being prosecuted in Maryland, is gun importer Sean Sullivan, the alleged ringleader; Larry Vickers, a firearms dealer and YouTube gun reviewer; Matthew Hall, former chief of police in Coats, North Carolina; and James Sawyer, chief of police in Ray, North Dakota.

Court records also detail emails from the ATF to Gonzales as they called into questions law letters signed by him, some that requested war-relic machineguns and one that was submitted by a gun dealer in Florida. Gonzales apparently told one investigator, according to court records, that he didn’t know what the law letters were for and didn’t need machineguns but, in a separate meeting, told the ATF that the letters to Tafoya were “valid and authentic.”

On Tuesday, Allen said none of the guns requested by Gonzales and Mora, among them several automatic Glock pistols and a FAMAS rifle, were ever bought by BCSO or made it into the inventory.

He said he did not know whether any such demonstrations ever occurred and the matter “is under investigation.” Allen said an audit did find that BCSO had 30 semi-automatic AK-47 rifles belonging to a “private citizen” that were placed in BCSO’s armory during Gonzales’ tenure in 2015.

He said those guns have been cleared of any connection to wrongdoing by the ATF and were not involved in the machine gun scheme.

BCSO spokeswoman Jayme Fuller said the private citizen, whom Allen would not name, never worked for BCSO. She said the agency is trying to learn why BCSO leadership ordered deputies to pick up the guns and store them in their armory, where they have been the past eight years.

“Since this was facilitated and allowed by the previous administration, we do not know that answer,” she said.

Allen said BCSO was not previously aware of the law letters sent by his predecessor and he was trying to get to the bottom of why he wasn’t made aware when he took the helm as sheriff. He said BCSO will do a full audit of all automatic guns in its inventory and, once cleared by the ATF, will be keeping them stored out of safety concerns.

“I will not release those unless it would be for destruction. We’re not going to sell those. We don’t utilize those in any operations,” Allen said. “We just know that they’re in our armory, and they’re safe. And that’s where I would rather have them to make sure that they’re in safe hands.”

He said he was the sergeant of the SWAT team in 2014 when they began “phasing out” automatic weapons, upon his request, as he did not feel deputies having access to such guns “was necessary.”

Allen would not say whether he believed Gonzales and Mora did anything illegal, as that is under the jurisdiction of the ATF, but he acknowledged the “potential for criminal misconduct in this case.”

Fuller, the BCSO spokeswoman, said Allen would not adopt or endorse the use of “law letters” as they were “employed by the previous administration” and the current sheriff “remains committed to upholding the highest standards of legality and integrity in all operations of the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office.”

The alleged scheme went far past the reaches of New Mexico.

Federal authorities say Sullivan and Vickers would have law enforcement leaders, like Hall and Sawyer, to sign law letters as “a favor” and then keep the imported guns for themselves or sell them to collectors and gun dealers.

Investigation of Tafoya

Tafoya was the alleged go-between when it came to Mora and Gonzales.

Gonzales submitted 127 law letters to Tafoya, requesting 598 guns for demonstration, between July 2015 and September 2020, according to the indictment. Mora submitted 17 law letters to Tafoya, requesting 414 firearms for demonstration, between March 2020 and March 2021.

Of the guns requested, 20 were allegedly imported by Sullivan.

In November 2021, ATF agents seized hundreds of guns from Tafoya as they investigated him, according to federal court records. And before he was indicted, Tafoya hired a lawyer to try to get the guns back.

According to the motion to get the guns back, filed in July 2022, Tafoya received 300 to 400 “law letters” from various authorities in New Mexico since 2013 and the ATF “approved nearly every single one.”

The motion included a October 2018 email from an ATF employee to then-Sheriff Gonzales, asking if he had signed law letters requesting several machine guns — including war relics like a water-cooled World War I machine gun that needed to be trailered behind a vehicle.

The ATF investigator wrote the requested guns “did not fit the typical law enforcement type” and noted the request may be illegitimate.

In the email, the ATF investigator told Gonzales gun dealers use law letters “as a loophole” to get their hands on machine guns, sometimes forging and reusing a previous letter or misleading sheriffs and police chiefs on what the letter is for.

“Sir, if you have not made any of these requests, please let me know so that we may take appropriate action,” the investigator wrote in the email.

The motion included the ATF’s disapproval to transfer some machine guns requested off a Gonzales’ law letter, citing that the agency “confirmed with the sheriff that he was unaware of the intended purpose of the law letter.” The disapproval note stated that “(Gonzales) has stated that there are no pending current or future purchases of machine guns and does not have a need for demonstrations of these machine guns.”

But, days after that disapproval, the investigator emailed Gonzales a second time: “Just wanted to let you know that your law letter is now being used by a (firearms dealer) in Florida ... if you have not signed law letters for a dealer in Florida please let me know.”

Another attached email from a BCSO assistant, sent April 5, 2019, sought to schedule a meeting between an ATF agent and Gonzales “to discuss Law Letters (i.e. Demo letters) that have been authorized by the Sheriff for business entities of James Tafoya.”

According to his attorney’s motion, Gonzales, Tafoya, Mora, a BCSO SWAT lieutenant and then-Undersheriff Larry Koren met with the ATF and Gonzales confirmed that the law letters “were valid and authentic.” The motion states that, afterward, the ATF agent told Gonzales he could continue to work with Tafoya and resumed approving future law letters.

Then, on November 30, 2021, ATF agents went to Tafoya’s home, warehouse and associated gun stores, seizing 239 of more than 1,200 firearms, according to the motion. Tafoya’s attorney wrote that his client’s business was “irreparably harmed” by the ATF’s gun seizure and he could no longer show off restricted guns to local law enforcement.

“In addition, a large local law enforcement agency was planning to purchase several firearms after a demonstration of those weapons, but ATF’s seizure has made that impossible,” according to the motion.