CHARLOTTE — A 25-year-old Charlotte man has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison for trafficking firearms, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina.
Walter Adonai Rivera Chinchilla purchased 115 firearms from licensed dealers across North Carolina between August 2023 and October 2024, falsely claiming the guns were for personal use.
Investigators said several of those weapons were later intercepted in a shipment bound for Honduras.
Court records show Chinchilla also sold firearms to an undercover agent and discussed coordinating shipments of guns to Mexico for a fee.
He was arrested in October 2024 after meeting with the undercover agent about smuggling firearms out of the country.
Chinchilla pleaded guilty to gun trafficking and was sentenced to seven years in prison followed by two years of supervised release.
He remains in custody and will be transferred to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
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