Former Ohio police chief, Indiana gun dealers plead guilty in conspiracy to illegally sell machine guns

INDIANAPOLIS – A former Ohio police chief and two Indiana gun sellers pleaded responsible in a conspiracy to illegally promote machine weapons.

Based on the Division of Justice, Dorian LaCourse helped two Indiana firearms sellers purchase and promote about 200 totally automated machine weapons by utilizing false paperwork. LaCourse, the previous chief of police in Addyston, Ohio, pleaded responsible to conspiracy and making false statements after a grand jury indictment.

The gun sellers, Johnathan Marcum, 34, of Laurel, Indiana, and Christopher Petty, 58, of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, have already pleaded responsible within the case.

The three exploited a legislation enforcement exception to the federal ban on the possession or switch of totally automated machine weapons. In his place as police chief, LaCourse signed a number of “demonstration letters” stating that his police division was all in favour of shopping for totally different fashions of machine weapons and asking Marcum or Petty to show them.

Marcum and Petty then despatched letters to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) with the intention to acquire the weapons. LaCourse positioned orders for German-manufactured machine weapons that had been speculated to be paid for by the police division. As an alternative, Marcum and Petty funded the purchases, bypassing restrictions on the importation of such weapons by anybody apart from the police or army.

It’s price stating that Addyston is a village in southwest Ohio with about 1,000 residents. LaCourse was its solely full-time police officer. The Addyston Police Division was by no means approved to purchase the machine weapons and lacked the personnel to make use of them in important numbers.

Marcum and Petty, meantime, by no means offered any demonstrations of the weapons. They as a substitute resold the machine weapons at a “important revenue,” in line with federal prosecutors, typically 5 or 6 occasions the acquisition worth. Federal prosecutors mentioned about 200 machine weapons had been imported or offered.

For his assist, LaCourse pocketed greater than $11,500 from the scheme. He pleaded responsible to conspiracy, making false statements in data maintained by a federal firearms licensee and making false statements to the ATF. LaCourse faces as much as 15 years in jail.

Marcum and Petty each pleaded responsible to conspiracy. They every withstand 5 years in federal jail.