FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
THURSDAY - February 3, 2011
INTERNATIONAL GUN TRAFFICKER PLEADS GUILTY
GREENVILLE - United States Attorney George E.B. Holding announced that today STEVEN NEAL 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).
On February 2, 2011, GREENOE, 37, of Raleigh, North Carolina, was charged by Superseding Indictment.
“I will not tolerate the violation of our gun laws and the victimization of the British people,” stated Mr. Holding. “We are working hard to bring justice to this vile criminal conduct. This plea is an important step forward. We will continue to work with our great British allies to prosecute and punish these illegal activities.”
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.
“ATF seeks to neutralize the illicit movement of firearms domestically and in this case internationally,” according to ATF Special Agent in Charge Zebedee T. Graham, “We will continue to utilize our available resources and partnership with other agencies in order to prevent firearms from entering into the hands of criminals.”
“Stopping the illegal export of weapons is important to the United States and to the countries those weapons are destined for,” said Brock Nicholson, acting special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Atlanta. “By stopping them here, we may be preventing crimes from occurring there.”
At sentencing, set for June 14, 2011, GREENOE faces up to 20 years’ imprisonment for the charge of exporting the firearms and up to 10 years’ imprisonment for the charge of traveling in foreign commerce to deal in firearms.
This was an international investigation into illegal firearms trafficking and firearms smuggling.
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.
News releases are available on the U. S. Attorney’s web page at www.usdoj.gov/usao/nce within 48 hours of release.
