Caption: Concealed firearms, firearms components, and ammunition retrieved from the punching bags
Summary
- Port of Spain man Shem Wayne Alexander, 36, was sentenced to four years and nine months in US federal prison for conspiring to smuggle firearms to Trinidad and Tobago.
- A US court also ordered forfeiture of firearms seized during the offence; Alexander had pleaded guilty.
- US authorities say the conspiracy ran from 2019 to 2022 and involved unlawfully exporting guns, parts and related items from Florida.
- Investigators allege more than 200 firearms were smuggled into Trinidad and Tobago during the operation.
- A 2021 seizure at Piarco airport found weapons, AR-15 parts and ammunition hidden inside two punching bags shipped as “household items,” according to the US Embassy.
TRINIDADIAN Shem Wayne Alexander, 36, has been sentenced to four years and nine months in a US federal prison for conspiring to smuggle firearms from the United States to Trinidad and Tobago, the US Embassy in Port of Spain said on Tuesday.
Alexander, of Port of Spain, was sentenced by US District Judge John L Badalamenti in the Middle District of Florida. The court also ordered him to forfeit firearms seized during the offence. Alexander had previously pleaded guilty.
According to a plea agreement and court records cited by the embassy, Alexander and his co-conspirators unlawfully exported firearms, firearm components—including upper and lower receivers and gun parts kits—and related items from Florida to Trinidad and Tobago between April 2019 and April 2022.
US authorities said more than 200 firearms were smuggled from the United States into Trinidad and Tobago over the course of the conspiracy.
The embassy said that on April 21, 2021, officers from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service and the Customs and Excise Division seized a shipment at Piarco International Airport that contained two punching bags.
The shipment had been sent from the United States and was described as “household items,” the release stated. However, investigators alleged the punching bags concealed a cache of weapons, parts and ammunition, including about 11 9mm pistols, two .38 special revolvers and a 12-gauge semi-automatic shotgun, along with AR-15 parts, dozens of magazines, drum magazines and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
US authorities said the shipment was arranged without written notice to the shipper about its true contents.
The case was investigated by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), including HSI’s Attaché Caribbean, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, with assistance from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, US Customs and Border Protection and the US Department of Commerce’s Office of Export Enforcement.
The embassy said the US Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs, Jamaica’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Jamaica Constabulary Force supported Alexander’s extradition. The matter was prosecuted by Assistant US Attorney Adam W. McCall in the Middle District of Florida.
