Firearms to China

On November 15, 2013, in the Eastern District of New York, Zhifu Lin, a Chinese national and resident of West Virginia, was sentenced to 108 months imprisonment, 3 years supervision and $100 special assessment. Previously, on October 4, 2012, Lin, pleaded guilty to violating the Arms Export Control Act and engaging in illegal weapons trafficking. Lin’s plea came after co-defendant Joseph Debose, a resident of North Carolina and former Staff Sargent in a U.S. Special Forces National Guard Unit, pleaded guilty on September 6, 2012 to violating the Arms Export Control Act. Lin, Debose and others exported multiple shipments of firearms from the U.S. to China by secreting them in packages and transporting them to shipping companies, including one in Queens, N.Y., to be sent to China. The weapons included numerous semiautomatic handguns, rifles, and shotguns. The smuggling scheme came to light after authorities in China seized a package containing firearms with defaced serial numbers shipped from Queens, N.Y. Thereafter, U.S. agents traveled to China and examined the firearms. Using forensic techniques, agents learned that one of the seized weapons had originally been purchased in North Carolina. Among the weapons seized in China were those Debose provided to his associates for export. On May 20, 2012, Debose was arrested in Smithfield, N.C., pursuant to a May 17, 2012 criminal complaint charging him with illegally exporting firearms to China without the required licenses. Lin and another Chinese national, co-defendant Lila Li, were also arrested and charged in connection with the case in an April 16, 2012 indictment in the Eastern District of New York. This investigation was conducted by ICE, ATF, IRS and BIS