Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – March 16, 2020 – Two illegal aliens have each been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for possession of firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking crimes, announced U.S. Attorney Don Cochran for the Middle District of Tennessee.  Brian Paredes, 22, of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, was sentenced Friday and Jose Calderon, 20, of Jalisco, Mexico, was sentenced in December, by U.S. District Judge Eli J. Richardson.  Both will be removed from the United States at the conclusion of their sentence. 

Paredes and Calderon were indicted in May 2019 on firearms and drug distribution charges after an investigation, which began in June 2018.

According to court records, on July 28, 2018, agents were conducting an investigation into illegal drug trafficking at a bar on Murfreesboro Pike in Nashville.  At approximately 3:00 a.m., agents saw Paredes exit the bar and get into the back seat of a vehicle, which left at a high rate of speed.  Agents followed the car to an apartment complex on Glengarry Drive and watched as the vehicle backed into a parking space and turned off the lights.  As agents approached, the vehicle made an evasive maneuver and vaulted from a concrete ledge to escape. Though the vehicle was damaged, it continued erratically on Murfreesboro Pike without lights, until stopping at an apartment complex on West End Avenue.  The occupants then fled on foot.  Paredes was found hiding under a parked car a short distance away and was taken into custody by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD).  Agents later determined that the car belonged to Paredes and recovered from it a Ruger AR-15 rifle, two loaded handguns, 22 bags of cocaine, and numerous bags of marijuana packaged for resale.  Paredes was released on bond and the following week, he and Calderon were arrested by MNPD for possessing 27 bags of cocaine and another loaded .45-caliber handgun.

Both pleaded guilty in August 2019 to two counts of possessing firearms during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime. 

This case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives; the Department of Homeland Security Investigations-Immigration & Customs Enforcement; and the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ahmed A. Safeeullah and Trial Attorneys Matthew Hoff and Kristen Taylor with the Organized Crime and Gang Section of the Department of Justice.

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