Arms Smuggler Finally Nabbed In Thailand Last Year

[sriracha john]

no previous posts found about this case that began last year:

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - A former police officer convicted of helping smuggle guns and grenade launchers from Vietnam to San Francisco has been sentenced to 51 months in prison, prosecutors said.

Federal Judge Maxine Chesney sentenced 57-year-old Daniel Rogers in a San Francisco courtroom on Wednesday, according to Luke Macaulay of the US Department of Justice.

US Attorney Kevin Ryan praised Thai authorities and US federal police for working together to capture Rogers, who spent nearly a decade on the lam in Southeast Asia before being detained in Thailand in January of 2004.

"Due to the cooperation between the Thai authorities and federal law enforcement, Mr. Rogers, a fugitive for nine years, is now being held accountable for his actions," Ryan said in a written release.

"I want to thank the Thai authorities and federal law enforcement for their tenacity and perseverance."

Rogers is from the US state of Washington, where he worked as a Jefferson County Sheriff's Department deputy for six years, according to Macaulay.

Rogers pleaded guilty in April to procuring four grenade launchers; 85 machine guns, and an array of pistols and arranging for them to be shipped to San Francisco on two Air France flights in 1994, court records indicated.

Rogers and another person sold the arms to an undercover agent from what is now the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to Macaulay.

"This investigation stopped a conspiracy to deliver extremely dangerous weapons that could have been used in crimes of violence all across the country," said Karl Anglin, head agent of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

The accused smugglers planned to deliver machine guns, pistols or grenade launchers to "whoever could come up with the money," according to Anglin.

Rogers was indicted by a federal grand jury in May of 1995, but remained in Southeast Asia after evidently learning of the charges awaiting him at home, Macaulay said.

Rogers, who had lived in Vietnam with his Vietnamese wife for approximately nine years, was detained by Thai authorities in Bangkok in January 2004 as he attempted to fly to Mexico City, Mexico, according to Macaulay.

Rogers was allegedly traveling with a revoked passport. ICE agents "escorted Rogers out of Thailand" and arrested him after reaching US soil, prosecutors said.

"ICE is working with its law enforcement counterparts around the globe to ensure that the world's international borders are not barriers to bringing fugitives to justice," said Charles DeMore, special agent in charge for ICE investigations in San Francisco.

"Cases like this are an ICE enforcement priority because arms traffickers jeopardize the safety of all Americans, flooding our communities with illegal weapons which end up in the hands of criminals and others bent on doing us harm."

[ilyushin]

ICE

On May 14, 1994, Rogers smuggled the following weapons to San Francisco:

one M-79 grenade launcher

four AK-47 machine guns

six M-16 machine guns

five Thompson machines guns, and;

ten pistols

On August 28, 1994, Roger smuggled the following weapons to San Francisco:

three M-79 grenade launchers

eleven M-3 machine guns

fifteen Thompson machine guns

twenty-two M-16 machine guns

twenty AK-47 machine guns

two M-60 machine guns

eighteen pistols

A federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment against Rogers in April 2004, charging him with 10 counts of possession and transfer of machine guns, possession of unregistered machine guns and destructive devices (grenade launchers), importation contrary to law, engaging in the business of importing firearms without a license, transportation of machine guns and destructive devices in foreign commerce without a license, and conspiracy to commit these acts.