www.13wham.com hat geschrieben:Global Gun Case Involves Local Company
Reported by: Sean Carroll
Email:
scarroll@13wham.comPublished: 1/27 7:33 pm
Updated: 1/28 7:18 am
Chili, N.Y. --- On Friday a German man will appear in Rochester’s Federal Courthouse to answer to charges related to an international gun smuggling operation. Authorities claim 56 year-old Karl Kleber illegally sold AK-47 drum magazines to a Chili-based gun business; American Tactical Imports (ATI) and its sister-company AmChar.
The basis for the smuggling charge Kleber now faces is a shipment of 5,760 75-round AK-47 drum magazines that federal agents believe were manufactured in China. The magazines simply hold additional rounds of ammunition for the AK-47 which is one of the most popular and prevalent machine guns in the world. It is also illegal to import those accessories from into the United States if they were made in China.
Agents believe that’s exactly what happened when that shipment of drum magazines arrived at AmChar and ATI’s headquarters on Airport Road in Chili back in 2008.
Involvement of AmChar & ATI
Anthony DiChario, a retired Rochester firefighter, is the owner of two local gun businesses that share the same building; AmChar Wholesale Inc. and American Tactical Imports or (ATI.) In an exclusive interview this week DiChario told 13WHAM News that 80% of his customers are police officers and agencies.
"I've always supported law enforcement from day one,” DiChario said. “That is why we've been in business for 45-years."
Now that DiChario finds himself and his businesses in the middle of a global investigation into gun-smuggling he admits he’s concerned with how he’ll be perceived. He also maintains he’s done nothing wrong and is, in his opinion, a “victim” in some ways.
Court documents state the investigation began with a tip about ATI receiving that shipment of 5,760 AK-47 drum magazines. However, DiChario and his representatives state the magazines were clearly marked as being made in Bulgaria and documentation appeared to support that.
"A circle and a ’10’ on it which indicates Bulgarian,” DiChario said of the marking that the gun magazines had. “That is why we bought the magazines because it was indicated as a Bulgarian magazine which is legal to import, Chinese is not."
A Global Investigation
Authorities suspect the drum magazines in question were in fact made in China and eventually bought by Karl Kleber and his German company "
Transarms." Federal agents then claim the magazines were shipped to Manchester, England in March 2008 at Kleber’s request where a man named Paul Restorick of Mil-Tec Marketing Inc. allegedly tried to sell the magazines to a Florida company.
Because of the ban on importing these Chinese-made products, the deal never went through, eventually resulting in a lawsuit referenced often in court documents related to the case. Kleber and
Transarms then shipped the magazines to Germany where they supposedly affixed the “Circle and 10” logo to make them appear Bulgarian.
DiChario, who says he first met Kleber at a gun show in Germany years ago, eventually bought the magazines from
Transarms, and in September 2008 they arrived at the Port of New York. Months later the investigation into ATI’s receiving of the shipment began in earnest.
“Smell of Sweet & Sour”
Court documents refer to email and phone conversations between Karl Kleber and various associates, including co-defendant Gary Hyde. There are repeated mentions of these men using code words to refer to the Chinese-made accessories.
“The drum magazines must not smell of sweet and sour or of special fried” one line in the court papers states.
There are also mentions of ongoing investigations into Kleber and others by European authorities. U.S. agents claim to have learned that German investigators were looking at Kleber and
Transarms for their "possible involvement in the illegal sale of machine guns via Croatia to Iraq."
The Arrests & Raid
Federal authorities are not commenting on specifics dealing with the arrests of Karl Kleber and co-defendant Gary Hyde. However, the unsealing of their criminal complaints (attached) reveals each was taken into custody in last week.
DiChario said he believes Kleber was arrested near New York City because one of his sales associates was scheduled to meet with him the following day on an unrelated matter and was subsequently informed via email that Kleber had “become ill” and had to cancel that meeting.
Court documents also state that Gary Hyde, a British businessman allegedly involved in these transactions, was taken into custody in Las Vegas, Nevada. DiChario was also in Las Vegas at a large gun show and he now suspects Hyde was there too.
On Friday January 21st federal agents also executed a search warrant at DiChario’s Chili businesses where he says they confiscated all of his computers and hard drives. (attached) DiChario said everything was returned on Monday and he only hopes that his company being “duped” into buying the drum magazines will help authorities catch suspected gun-smugglers who have been closely watched for many years.
"I'm most concerned about bringing these people to justice," DiChario said. "This is a real small potato to the big pot if you know what I'm talking about. I think they're utilizing this whole structure here to lock these guys down and get to the bottom of the big stuff."
Kleber is due back in federal court for a detention hearing on Friday and the U.S. Attorney’s Office has tentatively scheduled a press conference following that court appearance.
