International Gun Trafficker Receives Stiff Federal Sentence
GREENVILLE – United States Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced that in federal court today Senior United States District Judge Malcolm J. Howard sentenced STEVEN NEAL GREENOE, to 120 months imprisonment followed by three years supervised release.
On February 2, 2011, GREENOE, 37, of Raleigh, North Carolina, was charged by Superseding Indictment. On March 2, 2011, GREENOE pled guilty to exporting firearms from the United States without a licence, in violation of Title 22, United States Code, Section 2778 and traveling in foreign commerce to deal in firearms without a licence, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 924(n).
According to the Superseding Indictment, GREENOE, obtained pistol purchase permits and a concealed weapons permit, completed the Form 4473 Firearms Transaction Record required to purchase firearms, and purchased firearms. After purchasing the firearms, GREENOE took the firearms apart and disguised the firearms as machining engineering samples and inert firearms and concealed them in his checked luggage. As alleged in the
Indictment, on nine occasions, from February 22, 2010, to July 25, 2010, GREENOE
concealed a total of 63 pistols in his checked luggage and traveled from Raleigh, North Carolina to the United Kingdom.
This was an international investigation into illegal firearms trafficking and firearms smuggling. We would like to thank the North West Regional Organized Crime Unit from Liverpool, England, for their assistance, along with ATF and ICE, stated Mr. Walker.
Illegal firearms smuggling poses a danger to the public, and our office will prosecute such cases vigorously.
ATF considers all violations of the federal firearms laws, to include illegal international firearms trafficking, contributing factors to violent crime, said Acting Special Agent in Charge Melvin D. King of the ATFCharlotte Field Division. We will hold anyone who
chooses to engage in this type of illegal conduct fully accountable for their actions. Both domestic and international gun running poses a serious threat to public safety, and that will not be tolerated.
By seeking to circumvent both U.S. and U.K. laws to illegally export firearms, Mr. Greenoe has potentially put the safety of countless law-abiding British citizens at risk, said Brock D. Nicholson, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Georgia and the Carolinas. Thanks to investigative assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, in addition to the aggressive prosecution by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Mr. Greenoe will now be held accountable for his crimes.
Investigation of this case was conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives and the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),
Homeland Security Investigations. Assistant United States Attorney Jane Jackson
represented the government.
