Nat'l Guard Sergeant, Two NY Men Face 20 Years for Trafficking in Guns to China
A National Guard special forces staff sergeant and two Chinese nationals were arrested and charged for their part in a multi-national firearms trafficking ring, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.
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Joseph Debose, 29; Zhifu Lin, 25; and Lilan Li, 23, were involved in the illegal export of firearms to China, ICE said. Debose was arrested May 20 in a sting operation by federal special agents in Smithfield, N.C. He was carrying a loaded .45-caliber pistol, ICE said, and agents seized 12 other firearms that were intended for export. Lin was arraigned May 24 before U.S. Magistrate Robert Levy, Brooklyn, New York, on an indictment previously returned by a grand jury in the Eastern District of New York, and ordered detained. Li was arraigned on that indictment May 2 and entered a plea of not guilty.
"The defendants in North Carolina and New York allegedly ran a pipeline of illegal firearms from the United States to China," said Loretta Lynch, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. According to court documents, between December 2010 and April 2012, Debose provided multiple shipments of firearms to associates who then secreted the weapons in packages and transported them to shipping companies to be sent to customers in China.
It was discovered after authorities in China seized a package containing firearms with defaced serial numbers that had been shipped from Queens, N.Y. U.S. officials determined they were on the U.S. Munitions List, barred from export without a license issued by the State Department.
Last month, an indictment was unsealed in a Brooklyn, N.Y., federal court charging Lin and Li with illegally exporting firearms -- including the aforementioned seized firearms -- from Queens, N.Y., to China without obtaining the required license. Lin was also charged with operating an illegal gun-dealing business and transporting firearms with obliterated serial numbers.
The defendants each face up to 20 years' imprisonment if convicted.