(Source: brownsvilleherald.com)

A man admitted to defrauding the Brownsville Housing Authority Tuesday afternoon by concealing income he earned through selling firearms, gun kits and ammunition, court documents and hearings revealed.

Gilberto Usdel Tello pleaded guilty in front of U.S. District Judge Rolando Olvera to lying to a special agent with the Department of Housing and Urban Development-Office of the Inspector General, or HUD-OIG, by telling the officer the only income he received was from social security and social security income.

A review of Tello’s BHA records showed he only reported food stamps, social security and social security income between 2016 and 2018 to the BHA despite a review of banking records showing that he made numerous cash deposits into a second bank account not reported to the BHA.

During the Tuesday hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Hagan said Tello used that second bank account to purchase gun parts and failed to disclose profits from the sale of ammunition and firearm parts deposited into that account.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms began investigating Tello in 2016 and a review of his financial records from between January 2015 and April 2018 showed $60,392 in cash deposits above what he earned from government assistance, court documents indicate.

Tello reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, which wasn’t filed in the court record in time for deadline.

Public court records don’t indicate whether Tello is facing charges relating to the illegal exportation of firearms to Mexico.

Five search warrant applications filed in Tello’s court case for electronic devices showed that federal officials with Homeland Security Investigations began investigating Tello in May 2018, eventually merging the investigation with the ATF in July.

ATF investigators first became aware of Tello after searching the phone of a defendant charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, court records indicate.

Tello’s information was saved in the phone as “Gun Jose,” according to the search warrant applications, which state that in May 2017 another defendant also charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm while under indictment had a phone with conversations between Tello and the defendant that showed Tello sold at least one firearm to that defendant, who later told authorities Tello provided him with 10 firearms that were destined for Mexico........