By KRWG News
LAS CRUCES, N.M. – A federal judge ruled Tuesday a Columbus village trustee should remain behind bars pending trial on gun smuggling and other charges in what prosecutors have described as a scheme to buy guns in the U.S. to ship to Mexico.
U.S. District Judge Robert Brack rejected Blas Gutierrez's appeal of a federal magistrate's decision last month to deny him bail.
Gutierrez faces 37 charges of conspiracy, gun smuggling and posing as a straw buyer of weapons. According to wiretaps cited by the prosecution, Gutierrez would receive calls from an inmate in a Mexican prison, instructing him to buy the guns.
Gutierrez, the mayor of Columbus and the border village's police chief were among a dozen people arrested last month in an alleged gun-smuggling ring.
Gutierrez's attorney could not be reached Tuesday.