"A class 3 sot conspired with several members of a police department to acquire Hk416s. They would then sell the uppers online for $2500-3800. These guys were also fraudulently selling HK53A3’s and IR aiming devices.
For anyone who owns an HK416 as you may own something that technically belongs to a police department. Since the feds know what’s going on it’s possible they may try to search for owners of HK416 uppers…"
…they don’t need to be registered, if it is able to be proven that the item that someone bought is in fact at one time police dept. property…maybe by some type of marking, copies of receipts or payment transactions l;inking the seller to the buyer, I would almost bet that they will come back to the buyer to get it as evidence in a case.
HK has said for years that these were not sold to individuals…so as not everyone will be affected, if they go after this, i think that is will be “buyer, you should have know better!”
I wonder if you could argue that since it was being sold by members of a Law Enforcement Agency, and even if this was not made known to you, you were still led to believe it was a legal transaction and therefore were never alerted to the fact that it was a straw purchase. If you truly were not made aware it was illegal I think you might be able to finagle your way to some reasonable outcome and maybe even have your funds returned?.. one could hope I guess
but then again… ignorance of the law is no excuse in the eyes of the court…
I don’t think the buyer would be in trouble at all…like you said, you trusted that what you were buying was legal and allowed, more so since you were buying it from a LEO, But I bet if they did take it, you would be completely out your money, but then that would raise lawsuits against the agency…
hell, that could net the once buyer an “HUGE” settlement from the agency!!!
I think it’s usually the buyers responsibility to know if it is legal or illegal to own. A buddy of mine purchased a pre-ban lower from a state trooper and didn’t check to actually see if it was pre-ban. Long story short lost the complete AR, lost LTC and had to pay a fine. As for the state trooper I am pretty sure he was never even contacted.
I can’t get the pdf to open so I can’t read the whole thing. PDs have, in the past, bought select fire weapons, then ended up selling the uppers to replace them with something else, or old, used equipment. Like my local SD, when they made the switch from EOTechs to Aimpoint M4s, the department sold them locally.
Was it the department that sold the uppers or the individual officers?
…no, the individual officers used Dept. Letterhead to acquire the weapons on a dept. purchase and then sold the uppers on the internet for profit maintaining the lowers/serial numbed items.
they did this in collaboration with a C3/SOT and probably used them to move the sales that they made.
Interesting. There are some tax issues with buying equipment and then selling it but companies offer individual officer purchases all the time. I couldn’t get the file open either so not sure what is what with this one.
The fact that I can buy a discounted firearm, even select fire and have it “issued” to me doesn’t let me turn a profit or outfit all my friends. When I sell my current rifle I’m not going to worry about a knock on my door from the FBI and/or the AUSA. Of course it is a single purchase and has been in service for years. I expect in this is not the case in the linked article.
Regardless of the final outcome it is shadey at best and makes us all look bad. Not cool at all.
I’m not tracking here…so the individual officers used a SOT to purchase weapons and IR. They then sold off the uppers while maintaining the actual registered part of the firearm.
Did the dept buy the stuff or was just used for the letterhead. Was this an individual officer purchase?
Yeah, definitely shady. I wonder if these were patrol officers or a special unit. Most PDs and SDs in my area allow officers to purchase their own equipment or use department issued patrol rifles, but most don’t have select-fire weapons except for obviously SWAT, or just here recently, they bought Glock auto sears for the K9 officers. Something about having more firepower if needed and having to maintain control of a dog.
Either way, this shit is definitely shady and sad. More ammunition for the anti-gunners.
no one is questioning a LEO getting a discount, but no you cannot buy a select fire item (Full Auto or burst) as an IO. that is purchased as a Department item, because you pay for it does not make it yours. An LEO agency can not just give you a FA/Select weapon because you pay for it. They are issuing it to you to use, but understand, it is the agency property. What I am reading in your post is maybe your agency said “if you pay for we will get it”…that being so, that is not your personal gun. if you left the agency, you could not take that with you for civilian use…not legally!
No what these guys were doing was planned and w/ intent to make personal profit…and they are not the first. Some LEO have been doing this since the HK416 have been available to LEO Departments.
I wonder how many they were trying to purchase/sell… To risk your career for a few bucks is insanity.
Also, were they purchasing with department funding? even if they were buying with their own money they could have made a profit, though obviously not as much. Just curious as to the level of the offense.
