TWO FT. CAMPBELL ARMY SERGEANTS AND A HOPKINSVILLE MAN SENTENCED ON CHARGES OF ILLEGALLY IMPORTING AND POSSESSING MACHINE GUNS FROM IRAQ David L. Huber, United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, announced today that GUY ANTHONY BROWN, age 46, of 801 East First Street, Hopkinsville, Kentucky, NIGEL BROWN, age 31, of 717 Dupuy Street, Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and BEAU URAN, age 25, of 885 Gordon Place, Clarksville, Tennessee have been sentenced in United States District Court, Paducah Division, on charges of conspiring to import machine guns from Iraq and aiding and abetting the possession of a machine gun. Senior Judge Edward H. Johnstone, United States District Court, sentenced GUY ANTHONY BROWN on October 24, 2005, to 5 years and 10 months imprisonment followed by 3 years supervised release. On October 25, 2005, Senior Judge Johnstone sentenced Army SERGEANT NIGEL BROWN to 2 years and 6 months imprisonment followed by 2 years supervised release and SERGEANT BEAU URAN to 6 months custody followed by 2 years supervised release with 6 months home detention and electronic monitoring. There is no parole in the federal judicial system. Sergeant Beau Uran had previously pleaded guilty on August 1, 2005, and admitted that between March 2003 and May 2004, he conspired to unlawfully import into the United States eighteen machine guns which were acquired in Iraq while Beau Uran and Nigel Brown were serving there as soldiers in the U.S. Army. Uran admitted to acquiring the machine guns from other soldiers in Iraq and to concealing the weapons by placing the machine guns in empty oxygen tanks and welding the bottoms back on the tanks. Uran stated that prior to coming back from Iraq, he and co-defendant Nigel Brown discussed that it might not be a good idea to ship the guns back to the United States because so many people knew about the guns. Uran stated that Nigel Brown told him that he (Brown) could sell the guns back in the United States and that they would just tell the other soldiers that the guns were not returned to the United States. Uran stated that once back at Fort Campbell, the guns were loaded onto a truck driven by Nigel Brown and that Nigel Brown told Uran that he would give Uran part of the proceeds from selling the guns. On July 26, 2005, Nigel Brown admitted to the conspiracy and stated that he removed the machine guns from the oxygen tanks after they had been shipped back to Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. Co-defendant Guy Brown admitted to retrieving the machine guns from Nigel Brown to sell in Christian County, Kentucky. Guy Brown admitted that he sold one of the machine guns to an undercover ATF agent for $1,000 and agreed to sell the remaining machine guns to the undercover ATF agent the following week for an additional $17,000. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michele Thielhorn and was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the United States Army Criminal Investigation Division, Warren County Sheriff’s Department/Drug Task Force, the Pennyrile Narcotics Task Force and the Hopkinsville Police Department.
I'm seeing some new BATFE crackdowns lately... I guess with the AWB sunset, they are bored and looking to stay busy? The above was a little different but I knew tons of Vietnam guys that sent rifles home one piece at a time
There's a difference between trying to keep your weapon and doing this, knowing it was a felony when they did it and doing it to sell them. Pretty much got what they deserve, I think.
Ok, The above was very different... I fused two different ideas together in my post. They were trying to import for sale, unregistered NFA items. Bad guys
if these guys really had brains, they would just bring home a stripped down receiver and keep it to themselves. Oh well, stupid is as stupid does.
It's unclear what was the original source of the weapons. It says they were acquired from "other soldiers". If they were US soldiers, this seems to indicate the weapons were US property. If that is the case, these guys stole the weapons with the intention of selling them. Sorry guys, but if that scenerio is true, I don't have too much sympathy. I don't appreciate people stealing, then reselling for personal profit, anything that my tax dollar has gone to purchase for our troops weather its toilet paper or machine guns. JM$.02
I bet AK's where brought home, not US property. Over there AK's are a dime a dozen. I do think Uncle Sugar could help finance the war by demilling the rifles and selling kits here, selling parts, mags, ammo...all of that good stuff. The Iraqis could work in the demill plants, and you have jobs, industry and revenue for the US and Iraq These are just some that got caught, it would probably suprise everyone to know how many don't get caught.