Listen to this text
Estimated 5 minutes
The audio model of this text is generated by AI-based expertise. Mispronunciations can happen. We are working with our companions to regularly evaluate and enhance the outcomes.
A former trucker from Florida has been sentenced to greater than 4 years in U.S. jail after smuggling handguns into Canada that had been later recovered at 10 crime scenes in Ontario and Quebec, and linked to two killings.
Court paperwork reviewed by CBC News present a uncommon glimpse right into a cross-border pipeline for crime weapons.
The scheme noticed U.S. firearms bought legally, then transported up to 2,000 kilometres north to be re-sold to a Canadian trafficker for the retail value of the gun, plus a $1,000 price for every weapon.
One of the weapons was discovered in Toronto after what police described as a “reckless” shootout in November 2024 that they stated highlighted the “real and present danger” posed by unlawful firearms.
This is much from an remoted case. Toronto police informed CBC News by way of e mail that among the many crime weapons seized in the town final yr and traced to date, 86 per cent got here from the U.S.
The Florida-based smuggler, 35-year-old Erhan John Er, beforehand pleaded responsible to conspiring to site visitors firearms and was sentenced earlier this month in U.S. District Court in Tampa.
Prosecutors stated that in the summer time of 2022, Er purchased 28 weapons from firearms sellers in the state and moved all of them throughout the border, solely to promote them to his unnamed Canadian co-conspirator.
Eighteen of these weapons stay unaccounted for.
According to a legal criticism filed by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Er answered “yes” when requested on federal buy kinds whether or not he was the respectable purchaser of the weapons.
“Er falsely claimed to gun dealers that he was buying guns for himself, only to smuggle the guns into Canada, where they were used in multiple crimes,” U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe stated in an announcement.
U.S. court docket paperwork present that weapons bought by Er had been recovered at crime scenes throughout Ontario, from Thunder Bay to York, Durham and Halton areas close to Toronto.
Court paperwork additionally present Quebec provincial police seized a Glock 45 amid an unspecified murder probe in May 2023.
Hamilton police recovered a Glock 49 whereas investigating one other killing on June 30, 2024. On that day, investigators stated 45-year-old Tobenna (Nnanna) Obiaga was shot in a parked automotive after an early-morning disturbance at a home social gathering. Obiaga, a father of two with a 3rd on the way in which, later died in hospital.
And 799 days after Er purchased a Glock 27 from a Naples, Fla., firearms retailer, the weapon turned up as Toronto police investigated a high-profile gunfight.
Investigators have stated it was a “miracle” nobody was killed or injured in the incident on Nov. 11, 2024, which adopted a party the place social media video confirmed firearms being brandished by a number of people.
A Florida man has been sentenced to greater than 4 years in jail for smuggling weapons discovered at numerous Canadian crime scenes, together with a shoot-out at a Toronto recording studio, CBC News has realized.
Serial numbers had been erased
All the weapons seized in the Er case shared a key trait: their serial numbers had been obliterated.
It was solely after authorities managed to restore the serial numbers that they linked the firearms again to the New York-born former trucker who, in accordance to court docket paperwork, had beforehand lived in Toronto.
“Altering or obliterating a firearm’s serial number is often utilized by persons attempting to evade detection,” ATF particular agent Joshua Dominguez wrote in the legal criticism reviewed by CBC. “The methods of obliteration include grinding, scraping, and drilling.”
ATF brokers seized a grinder energy device from a Sarasota, Fla., storage unit linked to Er. In the identical unit, they discovered a handwritten ledger, marked “$16,412 Cdn payout” on the backside.
All the weapons recovered from Canadian crime scenes had been Glock pistols. But information present Er additionally tried to purchase much more firepower.
In July 2022, he logged on to the web site of a Naples, Fla., gun vendor and sought to purchase 4 Century Arms Mini Draco semi-automatic firearms — a Romanian-built pistol that holds a 30-round journal.
Glorified in rap music, the Mini Draco bears similarities to the notorious Kalashnikov rifle, also referred to as the AK-47.
“The attempted purchase was flagged as suspicious and never took place,” Er’s plea settlement reads.
Er’s co-conspirator — the Canadian who paid him $1,000 price for every gun he smuggled — is simply recognized as “Person-1” in the plea settlement. The unnamed suspect has not been charged.
Kehoe, the Tampa-based prosecutor informed CBC the matter “continues to be under investigation, with regard to that individual.”
Angie Sloan, a spokesperson for the Ontario Provincial Police, stated the company “reviews all information and evidence provided and investigates matters thoroughly, laying charges when supported by the evidence.”
