A 36-year-old Trinidadian man has been sentenced to four years and nine months in a US federal prison for conspiring to smuggle firearms from the United States to Trinidad and Tobago.

Shem Wayne Alexander, of Port of Spain, was sentenced by US District Judge John Badalamenti. 

The court also ordered the forfeiture of firearms seized in connection with the offence. 

Alexander had previously pleaded guilty.

According to the plea agreement and court records, between April 2019 and April 2022, Alexander and his co-conspirators unlawfully exported firearms, firearm components — including upper and lower receivers and gun parts kits — and related items from Florida to Trinidad and Tobago. 

In total, more than 200 firearms were smuggled during the conspiracy.

On April 21, 2021, officers from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service and the Customs and Excise Division at Piarco International Airport seized a shipment containing two punching bags.

Investigators said Alexander and his associates had sent the shipment from the United States describing the contents as “household items”. Concealed inside the punching bags were approximately 11 9mm pistols, two .38 calibre special revolvers, a 12-gauge semi-automatic shotgun and multiple firearm components and accessories.

Authorities said the shipment also contained AR-15-style barrels and foregrips, 32 AR-15 magazines, one AR-15 drum magazine, 470 rounds of AR-15 ammunition, 34 9mm magazines, three 9mm drum magazines, 284 9mm rounds, 15 .38 calibre rounds, 36 shotgun shells, six magazine couplers and two shotgun chokes.

Prosecutors said Alexander and his co-conspirators arranged the shipment without providing written notice to the shipper about its true contents.

The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, including its Caribbean attaché office, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, with assistance from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service’s Transnational Organised Crime Unit and Special Investigations Unit.

Additional support was provided by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, United States Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Commerce’s Office of Export Enforcement.

The Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs, the Jamaica Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Jamaica Constabulary Force also assisted in Alexander’s extradition. 

The case was prosecuted by Assistant US Attorney Adam McCall.