Navy SEAL accused of weapons smuggling

[babo78]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101104/...ling_navy_seal

If this is true...man...I don't know what to say.

"LAS VEGAS – Federal authorities say they seized C-4 military explosives from the home of a Colorado man accused of conspiring with a Navy special forces SEAL and a Las Vegas man to smuggle machine guns from Iraq into the U.S. for sale and shipment to Mexico.

Federal prosecutors and agents in Las Vegas and Colorado say authorities also found grenades and night-vision goggles in the Durango, Colo., home of 34-year-old Richard Paul.

Paul and 36-year-old Andrew Kaufman of Las Vegas are being held on charges that they conspired with Navy SEAL Nicholas Bickle to smuggle and sell weapons to an undercover federal agent in Nevada.

Bickle was being held in San Diego, where a prosecutor says federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents are still serving warrants in searches for evidence.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Navy SEAL in California and men in Nevada and Colorado have been arrested and accused of smuggling machine guns from Iraq into the United States for resale on the black market, federal authorities said Thursday.

The special forces SEAL, Nicholas Bickle, 33, of San Diego, Las Vegas resident Andrew Kaufman, 36, and Richard Paul, 34, of Durango, Colo., were arrested Wednesday in those cities, the U.S. attorney's office in Las Vegas said.

A complaint filed Oct. 29 and unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas accuses the trio of conspiring to smuggle and sell 18 weapons and 14 other firearms since June to an undercover federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent in Las Vegas and Colorado.

Bickle is accused of smuggling about 80 AK-47 weapons from Iraq or Afghanistan, including factory-made 7.62 mm Iraqi machine guns that the complaint said would be difficult or impossible to trace. Other weapons included Ruger handguns.

"According to the other members of the organization, this was possible because Navy SEALs are not searched when returning from deployments," the document said.

Bickle began SEALs training in August 2005 and did two tours in Iraq, said Lt. Cate Wallace, a Navy spokeswoman. He is currently assigned to a SEALs team on the West Coast.

"This type of behavior is not reflective of the character within the Navy SEALs community," Wallace said.

The investigation began on tip from a confidential informant who faced felony battery domestic violence and robbery charges in Nevada and is cooperating with authorities, the complaint said. Neither the informant nor the undercover agent is identified.

Las Vegas-based ATF Special Agent Eric Fox alleges in the complaint that at least one of the accused coconspirators bragged that the guns were from the military in the Middle East and would be untraceable.

The complaint cited text message and bank records, and said at least one sale involved 10 AK-47 rifles for $1,300 each, and six handguns at $300 apiece.

The conspiracy charge alleges that Bickle, Kaufman and Paul engaged in firearms dealing without paying a special tax, possessed a machine gun that wasn't registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, and transferred an unregistered machine gun.

If convicted, each faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

A statement from Daniel Bogden, U.S. attorney in Las Vegas, said Bickle was due to appear Thursday in federal court in San Diego.

Paul appeared Wednesday in federal court in Durango, and was ordered held pending another hearing Thursday, Bogden said. On Thursday, he was ordered held without bond and transferred to Nevada. A search warrant affidavit remains under seal.

Kaufman was due Thursday before a federal magistrate judge in Las Vegas."

[PizDoff]

Moved from The Armory as that forum is not for social issues.

Have a kempo day.

[submessenger]

It's scary when stuff like this happens. I hope the recovered C4 was all the C4 there was... (would they tell if it wasn't?)

Back in '95 or '96, there was a GMG2 on my boat that skipped out with a bunch of grenades; he was caught in Virginia after selling or attempting to sell them. I managed to finagle my way into getting assigned to assist in retrieving him from civilian custody and deliver him for processing at NAS Jax (one of our MAAs was my best friend and roommate). It's the closest I've come to being either famous (I remember the media was nuts to see this guy, the ship, etc.) or incarcerated. Definitely an eye-opening experience.

I have no idea what happened to the grenades, though. We certainly didn't take custody of them when we took custody of him. A few years ago, I managed to find a mention of the incident online, but my google-fu is slipping.

Edit: google-fu polished off. Here's my story.