Former North Carolina Marine To Be Sentenced in Federal Court

A former Marine from North Carolina will be in federal court for sentencing after pleading guilty to exporting firearms without a license and traveling in foreign commerce to deal in firearms without a license. The federal charges for gun smuggling stem from an incident last year.

The man allegedly attempted to smuggle 63 pistols into the United Kingdom last year by transporting them in his luggage. Law enforcement authorities say that the North Carolina man disassembled the weapons to make them look like engineering samples, rather than lethal weapons. The illegal weapons were discovered in his stow away luggage

The man is a former Marine. His sentencing is scheduled for today in federal court in Greenville, N.C. He could receive a sentence up to 30 years in prison.

The case is particularly troubling for UK and US law enforcement authorities. Residents and even law enforcement officers in the UK are not regularly armed. The influx of lethal weapons from the US could pose a serious threat to the safety of people and officers in the country.

Source: Washington Post, “North Carolina man to face sentencing in federal court on charges of smuggling guns to the UK,” 1/10/2012