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Arms seller found guilty of conspiring with former LCSP officers in illegal gun deals

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A Pennsylvania arms dealer who federal investigators said conspired with two former Lake County Sheriff’s Police officers in a gun-buying scheme has found guilty of multiple charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Indiana said.

Vahan Kelerchian, 56, of Richboro, Pa.--doing business as Armament Services International (ASI)--was convicted late on Thursday following a two-week jury trial of making false statements and of money laundering, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Kelerchian was found not guilty of bribery.

According to evidence presented at trial, Kelerchian conspired with Joseph Kumstar and Ronald Slusser, two now former LCSP officers who have already pleaded guilty in the case, to knowingly make false statements related to the acquisition of firearms. Kumstar and Slusser used their positions as sworn law-enforcement officers to acquire from Kelerchian, as a holder of a Class 3 federal firearms licensee, 71 fully automatic machine guns in the name of the LCSP, in the knowledge that the LCSP was not going to be the true owner of the weapons, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Kelerchian, Kumstar, and Slusser did so by using law-enforcement letterhead to create letters which falsely represented that the LCSP would be using the machine guns, manufactured after 1986, in the course of its law-enforcement duties, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said, as machine guns made after 1986 may only be purchased by law-enforcement agencies, not individual officers.

The machine guns cost between $1,200 and $1,600 and, after being delivered to the LCSP, were transported off site and parted out, with some of the barrels--also known as the “uppers”--split between the two officers and some returned to Kelerchian. The uppers in turn were sold for twice the price of the gun itself--at between $3,000 and $3,600--because post-1986 parts are not available to the general public, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Kelerchian also used his company to assist Kumstar and Slusser in acquiring 74 restricted laser aiming sights, once again using official LCSP and Lowell PD letterhead. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has restricted the use of these sights--which have a visible laser capable of being seen more than 50 feet away and an invisible sight capable of sighting on a target more than a mile away when used with infrared goggles--to law enforcement and military personnel only. Kelerchian, along with Kumstar and Slusser, used their positions to acquire these devices and sell them to the general public or keep the devices for themselves, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Department of Defense’s Criminal Investigative Services; the FBI; the FDA, and the IRS.

 

Posted 10/19/2015

 
 
 
 

 

 

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