Two former police chiefs in North Carolina and North Dakota are among five people who have been charged with conspiracy to illegally buy and sell machine guns and other regulated firearms.
Matthew Jeremy Hall, 53, and James Sawyer, 50, who were Chiefs of Police in Coats, North Carolina and Ray, North Dakota respectively, are facing up to five years in jail over the federal charges.
They have been accused of obtaining the weapons, which included restricted short-barreled rifles, by falsely claiming they would be used in demos to their respective police forces over a two year period starting in June 2018.
Ray resigned from his post in February of this year citing health reasons. Hall became Chief in 2011 according to his LinkedIn profile which still lists him as in charge, although he is absent from the Coats police website.
The cops were indicted by the DOJ on Friday along with Sean Reidpath Sullivan, 38, of Gambrills, Maryland; Larry Allen Vickers, 60, of Charlotte, North Carolina and James Christopher Tafoya, 45, from Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Former Coats Police Chief Matthew Jeremy Hall (pictured) was indicted along with James Sawyer, former Police Chief of Ray, North Dakota on conspiracy to illegally buy and sell machine guns and other regulated firearms
The two police chiefs were charged along with Sean Reidpath Sullivan, 38, of Gambrills, Maryland; Larry Allen Vickers 60, of Charlotte, North Carolina (pictured) and James Christopher Tafoya, 45, from Albuquerque, New Mexico.
According to the indictment, the men all falsely claimed the firearms would be used for demonstration to law enforcement agencies, with Hall and Sawyer fraudulently signing documentation, known as law letters, to this effect.
Former solider Sullivan was an intelligence analyst with Department of Homeland Security Investigations, meaning he was licensed to import firearms in certain circumstances.
He is accused of submitting the false law letters to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to import the guns, before keeping some for himself and passing some on to Vickers and Tafoya who owned firearms businesses and also held similar licenses.
In addition to the indictment, Larry Vickers pleaded guilty on Thursday to participating in the conspiracy to import and obtain machineguns and other restricted firearms.
He admitted that he received some of the imported machineguns and other weapons and kept some in his personal collection and transferred others.
The men were charged on a 26 count indictment announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Maryland
Vickers also pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions against a foreign firearms manufacturer between July 2014 and March 2021, in the Southern District of Florida.
He faces a up to 25 years in jail for the offences. Judge Julie R. Rubin has not yet scheduled sentencing for Vickers.
If convicted, Tafoya and Sullivan could also be slapped with a five year jail sentence for the conspiracy to violate federals law regulating firearms and the law letter frauds.
Sullivan faces up to an an additional 20 years for using criminal proceeds to conduct financial transactions and owning unregistered firearms.
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