U.S. Department of the Treasury

(Archived Content)

After being informed by an ATF inspector that he could not renew his FFL because of local restrictions, Sean TWOMEY altered his expired license to change the expiration date. TWOMEY also made a second license using an alias. He sent copies of the altered license and the second false license to various gun distributors. One of the gun distributors noticed a problem with the license and contacted ATF. TWOMEY subsequently used the altered license to obtain more than 1,100 guns, which were trafficked throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. He made guns attractive to criminals, while concealing the trail to himself, by obliterating the serial numbers on most of the guns. The ATF Laboratory was able to raise some of the numbers, enabling the ATF National Tracing Center to provide key trace information leading to TWOMEY. To date, close to 50 TWOMEY guns have been traced after being recovered at crime scenes and from criminals. Guns illegally trafficked by TWOMEY have been used in multiple crimes including murder and bank robbery. TWOMEY is currently serving a 72-month sentence in Federal prison.

In May of this year, a United Parcel Service (UPS) driver attempted to deliver a package to a residence in Montclair, New Jersey. He observed that the address was a residence, not a gun store as the label on the package indicated. Additionally, no adult was present to sign for the package, as required. The driver returned the package to the UPS facility. UPS contacted the sender and confirmed he was an FFL in Texas.

The Texas FFL contacted the ATF Licensing Center in Georgia to determine whether the FFL in New Jersey was valid. Upon being told that it was not, the Texas FFL contacted ATF in New Jersey and informed agents of the situation. ATF took control of the package from UPS and with the assistance of the Essex County Prosecutor's Office, Postal Inspection Service, and the Montclair Police Department, conducted a controlled delivery of the package. Two juveniles were arrested after the controlled delivery and a State search warrant.

ATF learned that the two juveniles in New Jersey altered an FFL they obtained from an FFL in Florida, whom they were able to dupe into believing they were licensed dealers. Once they obtained the FFL from the Florida dealer, they placed an order with the Texas FFL using a fictitious name and the real address of one of the students.

The students admitted to altering a copy of a license and making four additional false FFLs. The juveniles also admitted to ordering four firearms via the Internet. Agents and investigators recovered all four firearms.

The age of the offenders and the limited federal sentencing options led to the prosecution of the case in State court, where the sentencing judge has latitude to impose a custodial sentence. In July of this year, both defendants pled guilty to possession of a firearm by juvenile, forgery, and conspiracy.

In February of 1999, a Tucson area FFL contacted ATF to report Mark S. FISCHER aka MS Firearms, for using an altered license to obtain a firearm from him. The false FFL number belonged to an FFL in New Orleans, Louisiana. The company name and shipping address were altered to reflect FISCHER's information in San Jose, California. A check of ATF Licensing records showed FISCHER held an FFL from 1988-1994 in Vancouver, Washington. An investigation revealed that FISCHER placed advertisements of firearms for sale in a popular firearms catalogue. He obtained FFLs and checks from prospective buyers for his advertised firearms and then returned the checks to the prospective buyers claiming some misfortune with the firearms. FISCHER kept the copies of the FFLs and was in the process of creating new fraudulent FFLs when he was caught. ATF also learned that FISCHER shipped two firearms directly to a non-licensee in New Jersey through a common carrier and listed the contents of the package as machined parts.

FISCHER signed a plea agreement, pled guilty to one count of Title 18, U.S.C. § 922e (to knowingly ship a firearm in interstate commerce without written notice to the carrier), and waived his rights to appeal. FISCHER was sentenced to 24 months Federal probation.