Three men arrested after federal agents say they bought 18 firearms at a central Kentucky festival and hauled them away in the bed of a pickup truck are now moving toward guilty pleas, court records show.
Damian Edel Hernandez-Cruz, Gregorio Rios-Cruz and Eduardo Rios-Cruz were indicted in November on federal firearms and immigration charges stemming from an October arrest in Montgomery County. All three initially pleaded not guilty, but prosecutors filed plea agreements this week for each defendant ahead of a scheduled January court appearance in Lexington.
According to court documents, agents were conducting surveillance at a festival when they watched the men purchase firearms from multiple vendors, load the weapons into a truck and leave the area. After a traffic stop, officers searched the vehicle with consent and found 18 firearms in the truck bed…