WORCESTER, Massachusetts - A United States resident who illegally shipped gun parts around the world has been sentenced in Massachusetts to nearly three years in federal prison.
Prosecutors say 60-year-old David L Maricola, of Southbridge, Massachusetts, sent more than $100,000 worth of components for assault rifles, handguns and machine guns that ended up in 20 countries, including France, Indonesia, Thailand, Australia and Germany. They say parts he shipped were used in two gang shootings in Finland, one of which was fatal.
Maricola was arrested in May of last year on a 32-count federal indictment on charges of conspiracy, illegally exporting defence articles, making false statements on customs forms and money laundering.
He admitted to illegally exporting and conspiring to illegally export hundreds of firearm parts overseas using the Postal Service, lying on customs declaration forms about the contents and value of the articles he was sending, and money laundering.
Maricola was sentenced Wednesday. He previously pleaded guilty to charges, including conspiracy, exporting gun components, making false statements on customs forms and money laundering. The crimes occurred between November 2010 and March 2012.
Prosecutors say Maricola mislabelled customs forms when shipping parts to say they were for replica guns or were "aluminium sculptures."
According to the charges, Maricola obtained many of the parts he illegally exported from Gunbroker.com, an auction-type website.
When he sold the parts, he instructed his foreign buyers to send him money using PayPal and told them, "DO NOT MENTION GUN PARTS".
Maricola exported hundreds of firearm parts overseas using the US Postal Service.