Guns Hidden in a Propane Tank: Georgia Mechanic Pleads Guilty After His $18,000 RV Was Stopped Heading Into Mexico at El Paso
A mechanic from Guanajuato, Mexico, who worked at an auto repair shop in DeKalb County, Georgia, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to traffic firearms into Mexico. Prosecutors say he paid $18,000 in cash for an RV that was later stopped at an El Paso border crossing with guns, magazines and ammunition hidden inside a propane tank. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas announced the plea on September 23, 2026.
An RV headed south
According to court documents cited by the Justice Department, Daniel Santana-Lopez, 40, bought the RV on June 14, 2024. He then gave it to another person in Georgia for the purpose of trafficking firearms from the United States into Mexico, the department said.
On July 20, 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers doing outbound inspections at the Bridge of the Americas Port of Entry in El Paso stopped the RV. They found multiple firearms, magazines and ammunition wrapped in plastic and concealed inside a propane tank. The department did not say how many guns were found. A fingerprint analysis found Santana-Lopez’s fingerprints on the plastic wrapping, prosecutors said.
Drug counts and a prior removal
Santana-Lopez was arrested on October 23, 2024. Federal prosecutors in the Northern District of Georgia charged him with seven drug trafficking counts and one count of illegal re-entry. The department said he had been removed from the United States in 2014 and 2017. The Western District of Texas later added the firearms trafficking conspiracy charge, which carries up to 15 years in federal prison.
On Tuesday, September 22, he pleaded guilty in federal court in Atlanta to the firearms conspiracy charge. He also pleaded guilty to three of the Georgia charges: conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, each carrying a 10-year mandatory minimum, as well as illegal re-entry. The release did not name the drugs involved.
What comes next
The case will stay in Atlanta, where a federal judge will set the sentence. No sentencing date was given in the release. The DEA, ATF, ICE and the North Georgia HIDTA Task Force investigated.
The Justice Department did not link Santana-Lopez or the weapons to any cartel or named criminal group. It did not say who was meant to receive the guns in Mexico.
Sources
Reported September 24, 2026, from the Justice Department’s announcement. Court filings were not reviewed, and no defense response was available. The release did not give the number or types of weapons, the drugs involved, or the identity of the second person in Georgia.