Maryland sheriff charged in illegal gun rental scheme | Maryland Daily Record

FREDERICK — A Maryland sheriff repeatedly lied to federal authorities to assist an area firearms vendor illegally acquire machine weapons and lease them out to his prospects, forming a partnership that was worthwhile and politically helpful, in response to a federal grand jury indictment filed final week.

Frederick County Sheriff Charles “Chuck” Jenkins pleaded not responsible Wednesday to a number of expenses, together with conspiracy and making false statements to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

After initially pledging to stay in workplace whereas the case proceeds, Jenkins stated Wednesday he takes a go away of absence.

“I’ve full confidence within the system, and I do know that my innocence will prevail on the finish of all of this,” Jenkins stated in a press release launched by the company.

He was launched pending trial on a number of situations, together with that he refrains from possessing a firearm or different harmful weapons.

Federal regulation usually prohibits firearm sellers from importing machine weapons until they’re getting used as demonstration fashions for regulation enforcement companies, which may legally buy such weapons. However to ensure that sellers to make use of that exemption, the regulation enforcement company should submit a letter to ATF requesting a pattern of the machine gun they’re contemplating buying.

In keeping with the indictment, Jenkins wrote such letters on behalf of his co-defendant, Robert Krop, whose Frederick County enterprise The Machine Gun Nest supplied machine weapons for lease. The enterprise revamped $100,000 in earnings from the leases in 2018 and 2019 alone, the indictment says.

Krop supplied Jenkins political help in trade for the favor, in response to federal prosecutors.

In a number of letters courting again to 2015, Jenkins falsely claimed the Frederick County Sheriff’s Workplace needed samples of assorted machine gun fashions, in response to the indictment. The requests had been permitted, permitting Krop’s enterprise to acquire the weapons.

In a 2018 letter, Jenkins requested machine gun fashions which are “appropriate just for use in fight,” not for regulation enforcement functions, the indictment says.

Jenkins was first elected sheriff of the largely rural county in 2006. He began his profession with the company in 1990.