On April 27, 2019, two young men, one visiting from Toronto and the other a local resident in Columbus, Ohio, wandered through the Ohio Expo Center gun show, visiting vendors, examining handguns and talking to sellers.
Stepping to one side, they then quietly spoke with two women they had earlier given $2,000 to and, as the men walked away, the women stepped up, filled out the required paperwork and bought four semi-automatic handguns: a Ruger .380 caliber and three Glock 9mm weapons.
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In a parking lot outside, the women turned over the guns and were paid $500 for their services.
It was to be the first stage in a long-running gun-smuggling operation moving firearms across the border into Canada, where a handgun bought in the United States for $500 could be sold on the streets of Toronto for as much as ten times that amount, authorities said.
A series of prosecutions and arrests in the United States tracked by National Post, including new indictments against 10 people this week, reveal detailed allegations of how U.S. guns were illegally making their way onto Canada’s blackmarket.
Seven men were arrested Wednesday for the alleged conspiracy and four others are considered fugitives, wanted for arrest by U.S. authorities, including a Toronto man, 23-year-old Hussein Ahmed.
“I want to apologize on behalf of the people of the United States of America for our guys bringing guns to your country,” David DeVillers, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, said in an interview. His office is prosecuting this case and others like it.
“The guns were purchased at different locations here, and they were making a lot of money bringing them to Canada. There’s a huge markup. The idea was to bring them to a place where they could sell them for a lot of money.”
We are not done yet
Authorities in Ohio say the gun smuggling was up and running at least by July 2018.
The group bought guns in the United States by both legal and illegal means, including through straw purchases (like at the gun show), when someone is paid to buy guns in their name but then hands them over to someone else.
They stockpiled the guns and then smuggled them in bulk into Canada, recruiting female drivers, enticing them with a free trip to Canada and drugs and alcohol.
The guns were often hidden in rented or leased Toyota Camry sedans, because the car has empty space by the centre console that can be use for storage of guns or money.
From the middle of 2018 to mid-2019, authorities believe the group moved more than 30 guns into Canada.
Money then flowed back to Ohio.
One time, on July 3, 2018, two of the men were found with $11,470 when crossing back into the United States, court documents allege. On Sept. 12, 2018, another pair was caught with $25,191 at Columbus airport after a flight from Canada.
One of the leaders in the conspiracy, prosecutors allege, was Omar Sharif Mohamed Hassan, a 25-year-old Columbus resident known by the nickname “O-Bandz.”
He recruited others into the scheme and told them what to do, the indictment says. He oversaw the buying and stockpiling of guns and much of the smuggling activity into Canada, and disciplining others for mistakes made during the operation, the indictment alleges.
At least three times, cars were stopped while trying to cross into Canada and guns found inside: on March 11, April 20, and April 23, 2019. Canada Border Services Agency could not provide details of the stops prior to deadline Friday.
Nine days before the last of those border stops, Hassan was spotted driving the wrong way on a one-way street in Colombus. During the traffic stop, police found two guns, including a Glock pistol, according to the indictment. The same Glock was later seized at the border during the smuggling attempt on April 23, authorities said.
By then, just when the border smuggling trips were increasingly frequent, authorities had figured out what was going on.
And that was just when Ahmed visited from Toronto.
He arrived in Columbus, and went to the gun show that same day, authorities allege. U.S. federal agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also there, watching them.
After the dealings at the show, the Columbus man, Abdirahman O. Abdirahman, was arrested and charged with his role in the conspiracy to illegally buy guns. His case, heard in February, is related to, but not a part of, the current indictment.
I want to apologize on behalf of the people of the United States of America for our guys bringing guns to your country
The case built against the other men, unveiled this week, remained under court seal while the investigation into the wider smuggling ring continued, in cooperation with Canadian law enforcement agencies.
Authorities were pressuring Abdirahman to cooperate. There were meetings about it while he awaited his sentencing, court documents show, but when Abdirahman was called to testify before the grand jury against co-conspirators, he refused.
Eric Hoffman, Abdirahman’s lawyer, said in court that his client was subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury.
“He showed up at the courthouse,” said Hoffman. “He showed up and he chose not to testify… He was always reluctant to (testify), though, and didn’t really tell me why, but we probably can guess why.”
In response, Abdirahman was held in contempt of court and sent to prison. While in prison, Abdirahman was convinced he had or was going to get COVID-19, and repeatedly asked the court to release him. His requests were turned down, partially because he could be released at any time — if he testified.
The new indictments are not the end of the case, DeVillers said.
First, he is waiting to put Ahmed before the courts in the U.S. That will likely take an extradition hearing. Then he expects other arrests.
“The investigation is ongoing. We are not done yet. We are still investigating other defendants and other circumstances with your law enforcement.”
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