Man sentenced to nearly 4 years for attempted arms export (Florida)

[Judi Lynn]

Published Monday, April 4, 2005

Man sentenced to nearly 4 years for attempted arms export

The Associated Press
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.
A man who pleaded guilty to trying to export 200 AK-47 assault rifles from the United States to a rebel group fighting in Colombia was sentenced to nearly four years in prison, the U.S. Attorney's office said Monday.

Guillermo Cardoso Arias, 55, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge James I. Cohn in Fort Lauderdale on Friday, the U.S. Attorney's office said in a statement.

Cardoso faced up to 20 years' prison on attempted weapons export charges, but was given the three year, 10 month sentence as part of a plea agreement, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

Law enforcement agents had taped conversations with Cardoso in which he said he was buying $300,000 worth of the automatic rifles for the outlawed paramilitary group of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, prosecutors said.

He said the weapons would be used to fight the groups leftist rival, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, prosecutors said.
(snip/...)

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050404/APN/504040955

[slackmaster]

1. Sounds like good police work

I'd be interested to know exactly where Cardoso thought he was going to acquire those rifles. It surely was a black market source, as one cannot simply buy even a single automatic rifle in the USA without a major amount of paperwork and a background check.