http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/135097
I SAID it was the FAL kits!!!!! Well Imbroglio said it but I crowned him the winner last night when the story broke.
8,000 rifle kits seized - Weapons found in Redmond can be
made into machine guns, ATF agents say
2003-06-20
by Noel S. Brady
Journal Reporter
REDMOND -- After a two-day raid, federal agents seized nearly
8,000 disassembled assault rifle kits from a warehouse here,
according to documents filed in U.S. District Court.
Special agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives suspect the kits are illegal because they were
imported without modifications to prevent them from being
converted from semiautomatic rifles to fully-automatic machine
guns, which are illegal to import or possess in the United States.
In an affidavit for a warrant to search P.W. Arms Inc., a firearms
importer located at 8525 152nd St. in Redmond, an ATF special
agent detailed the investigation. In early 2000, it states, the
Redmond company began negotiating with an arms dealer in
Chile to import 25,000 Brazilian-made IMBEL FN/FAL assault
rifle kits.
The FAL, also known as LAF or Light Automatic Rifle, is used as
a military rifle in many countries. It's also popular among
collectors in the United States, but it's legal only if modified for
semiautomatic use only.
P. W. Arms was working as an agent to Dan's Sporting Goods
Inc., a Pennsylvania arms dealer, when a representative from
Dan's went to Chile to inspect a shipment in July 2000, the
affidavit states. The representative from Dan's signed a contract
to purchase the kits for $85 each.
[b]The contract also included a diagram instructing how the kits
should be broken down and deactivated, the ATF said. But that
diagram, which conforms to how previously obtained samples of
the shipment were found, does not render the weapons
semiautomatic only, according to ATF agents who inspected the
diagram and sample kits.[/b]
The president of P. W. Arms -- who isn't being named because
he hasn't been charged with a crime -- signed an identical
contract with the Chilean dealer about the same time, the ATF
said.
A year later, P.W. Arms and Dan's Sporting Goods began
disputing the contract, and wound up in U.S. District Court under
a civil suit filed by the Chilean dealer. During sworn depositions,
the ATF said, a P.W. Arms official admitted to approving the
deactivation methods for the kits to be shipped.
The P.W. Arms official also testified that his company had
roughly 8,800 of the kits stored at its Redmond warehouse plus
another 10,000 or more in a warehouse in Apollo, Penn.
The search warrant affidavit states that P.W. Arms called several
dealers, trying to sell the kits for $125 each, but were turned
down repeatedly when dealers questioned their legality. One
dealer told the ATF that the president of P.W. Arms would not
assure him the rifles were legal.
Top officials for P.W. Arms could not be reached by telephone
Thursday. A spokesman for Dan's, reached in Pennsylvania,
said he had no knowledge of the ATF investigation and therefore
could not comment.
In addition to the nearly 8,000 rifle kits, ATF agents also seized
financial records, computer hardware and at least two
assembled IMBEL FN/FAL rifles from the W.P. warehouse,
according to a warrant return inventory filed in court.
ATF spokesman Scott McKenna said Thursday no one had been
arrested in this case, but the investigation was ongoing. He said
it was too soon to determine whether anyone associated with
P.W. Arms or Dan's would face criminal charges.
PHOTO: By David Nelson/Redmond Reporter: An agent with ATF
examines pallets seized after a raid on P.W. Arms Inc. in
Redmond on Wednesday.
Jesus...throw the receiver stubs in the scrap heap at the border and there is no violation.