Three Northern Virginia men, two of whom are illegal immigrants, are behind bars after a law enforcement informant purchased more that 5 ounces of cocaine and 16 guns from them in recent months, according to court documents unsealed this week.
One of the men, Luis Guzman, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, was a local business owner, court documents said.
Guzman, 43, owns at least one restaurant in Manassas Park where several of the drug and gun transactions took place. The restaurant was not named in the documents. He also is listed as the director of LKG Enterprises Inc., which received its certificate of incorporation from Virginia in 2003. A spokesman for the commonwealth’s corporate commission agency said there are no identity checks for people seeking to start a corporation.
The investigation started when an a confidential informant advised the Manassas Park police in February 2007 that Guzman had offered to sell the informant cocaine, court records said. Between February and March 2007, the informant, at the bequest of police, repeatedly purchased cocaine from Guzman.
When the informant learned Guzman also was involved in firearms trafficking, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives became involved with the investigation which continued through August of this year.
According to court documents, the informant purchased during that span more than 5 ounces of cocaine and the guns — including sawed-off shotguns, assault-style rifles and several handguns — from Guzman, his 48-year-old brother Jose Pineda, and Guzman’s security guard, 36-year-old illegal immigrant Melquis Portillo.
Several of the transactions took place in the bathroom at the restaurant owned by Guzman, while others took place in the restaurant’s office, various parking lots and at Portillo’s Manassas home, records said. Law enforcement agents observed the informant purchasing weapons from Guzman while Guzman sat in his Lincoln Navigator. They also watched as Pineda drove to transactions in his Hummer.
Guzman’s gun suppliers apparently stole some of the weapons from area residents; two .30-caliber rifles purchased by the informant on Jan. 25 had been reported as stolen to Prince William County police on Jan. 20, records said.
A neighbor who lived near Guzman for 16 years and watched him raise his family at his Chantilly home said they recently moved out when the house was foreclosed upon.
John Brosnan and Gretchen Taylor, attorneys for Guzman and Pineda respectively, could not immediately comment Wednesday. John Iweanoge, Portillo’s attorney, could not be reached.
