On April 22, 2025, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida announced that Matthew L. Stephen Easton, a licensed gun dealer operating as MIA Arsenal in Melrose, Florida, had been sentenced to 11 years and eight months in prison for his role in a gun trafficking scheme involving over 100 firearms, along with two co-conspirators: Derick Yamir Perez Diaz and Ernesto Vazquez.
The U.S. attorney’s office noted that Easton “supplied Perez Diaz with large quantities of firearms, despite knowing that Perez Diaz was dealing in firearms without a license,” between October and December 2023. Perez Diaz then trafficked the firearms to Vazquez, who had them smuggled out of the country.
the gun trafficking scheme
According to his plea agreement, Easton told an uncover agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that “he sold more than 100 Glocks and 20 AK rifles” to a group in Orlando including Perez Diaz and others during those three months, even after learning that “they were taking the firearms further south to resell” them.
Easton appears to have used Facebook and the MIA Arsenal website to advertise a variety of firearms and accessories. He told the undercover agent that one member of the trafficking group had been arrested, and that the ATF had”called him to trace eight of the firearms” after they were recovered by police.
The plea agreement includes transcripts of text messages where Perez Diaz made it clear to Easton that he was straw purchasing the firearms, or illegally buying them for someone else. Obvious warning signs of straw purchases include “buyers making multiple purchases of the exact same model of gun, buying sprees over a short time period, large-volume purchases, cash payments and staggered visits to elude multiple-sale reporting requirements.”
For example, after Easton told Perez Diaz that he had a dozen 9mm Glock 17 pistols for sale on the morning of October 30, 2023, Perez Diaz texted, “Let me call my guy to double check with him” and “I’m just waiting for my guy to confirm all 12.” Perez Diaz also told Easton that his buyer, Vasquez, was “bringing me the rest of the cash.” Authorities say the two completed the sale for $6,600 that afternoon.
According to authorities, Easton sold Perez Diaz 65 more Glock 9mm pistols over two separate transactions in November 2023. The following month, Easton sold Perez Diaz 11 AK-style rifles and pistols made by Century Arms, Palmetto State Armory, Pioneer Arms, Romarm, and Zastava Arms.
smuggling guns to the caribbean
When authorities searched Vasquez’s home in April 2024, they found multiple firearms, stockpiles of ammunition, and grenades.
Perez Diaz and Vasquez also admitted to trafficking machine gun conversion devices, including those designed for Glock-style pistols.
In court documents, authorities say Vasquez and his co-conspirators distributed the firearms and conversion devices to other parts of Florida, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic.
According to a 2024 U.S. Government Accountability Office report, authorities recovered 5,399 crime guns in the Caribbean that were traced back to the U.S. between 2018 and 2022, and 1,925 of those guns — or 36 percent — came from Florida. Additionally, 57 percent of the crime guns recovered in the Dominican Republic in that time frame were traced back to the U.S., with 34 percent originating with a U.S. retail purchaser. In neighboring Haiti, 89 percent of the crime guns recovered during those years were traced back to the U.S., and 71 percent originated with a U.S. retailer purchaser.