ATLANTA — An international weapons trafficking crime ring out of Georgia has been sentenced after selling firearms abroad, according to a Department of Justice news release.
Prosecutors announced the final defendant among a trio of firearm traffickers will spend time behind bars after attorneys say the group illegally sold guns from the U.S. to the United Kingdom and the Caribbean.
Between February 2017 and May 2020 a 25-year-old man and his two accomplices exported around 36 firearms from the U.S. abroad using the U.S. Postal Service, the DOJ said. Several firearms purchased by the group in Georgia were recovered in the U.K. and St. Kitts and were tied to various criminal networks abroad, a news release said. The 25-year-old, a St. Kitts and Nevis citizen partnered with a 25-year-old person of Atlanta and a 30-year-old of St. Kitts to conduct the illegal business, attorneys said.
To sell the guns, they would falsely claim to be the original buyers of the firearms "when they knew they were buying the guns for someone else," the release said. Attorneys said the 25-year-old man would then obliterate serial numbers on the firearms.
The man was convicted on charges of conspiring to straw purchase firearms, illegal dealing in firearms, unlawfully transferring firearms to an out-of-state resident and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. He was sentenced to four years and three months of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release.
The 30-year-old prosecutors said was involved in the arms trafficking ring was sentenced last September to four years and nine months behind bars followed by three years of supervised release. The individual pleaded guilty to similar charges in addition to possession with intent to distribute marijuana.
The third accomplice from Georgia, the DOJ said, was sentenced in November to three years of probation. The 25-year-old pleaded guilty to one county of straw purchasing a firearm.
“This case and ultimate conviction highlights the fact that illegal gun trafficking not only affects our local communities but has implications far beyond our borders,” ATF Assistant Special Agent in Charge Beau Kolodka said in a news release. “At a time in which our ports are seeing unprecedented traffic, this case highlights the need for ATF and our partners to be vigilant in investigating and prosecuting individuals who supply the illegal arms trade.”
