Sergio Carvalho, Firearms Trafficking, Florida 2014

A Brazilian man has pleaded guilty to firearms trafficking charges in Florida, according to authorities. Sergio Carvalho, 50, formerly of Boca Raton and Brazil, pleaded guilty to making false statements in a firearm sales record, a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 924(a).

The crime took place on March 30, 2001, in Port St. Lucie, Florida, where Carvalho and his colleague Moizes Maia Nogueira visited a federally licensed firearms dealer named Vincent Olavarria Jr. The two men purchased 12 semiautomatic rifles from Olavarria, requesting that he conceal their names from the firearms sales records.

Olavarria, 48, of Port St. Lucie, agreed to the request and falsely placed the rifles in the names of other straw purchasers, when completing the sales paperwork required by federal law. Both Nogueira, 44, of Pembroke Pines, and Carvalho then resold and delivered rifles to Vicente de Paula Vieira, and his son Marcos Barbosa Vieira, two Brazilians who were exporting firearms illegally from the United States to Brazil.

An ATF investigation into the sales records discrepancies led ATF Special Agents to question Carvalho in April 2011 about his purchase of rifles from Olavarria. Carvalho falsely denied knowledge of the rifles. Carvalho also did not volunteer the existence or involvement of Nogueira or the father and son team of the Vieiras, and their respective exports of firearms to Brazil.

The case is a result of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a Department of Justice nationwide initiative that combines traditional law enforcement activities with community-based support and intervention programs. The two primary goals of the PSN initiative are to reduce and prevent violent crimes and to help past offenders adjust and re-enter the community.

Sergio Carvalho was found and arrested on April 30, 2014, in New Orleans, Louisiana, on the arrest warrant from his indictment in this case, and the U.S. Marshals Service returned him to Fort Pierce to face the pending charges. Sentencing is scheduled for September 18, 2014, before Chief U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore in Fort Pierce. Carvalho faces a possible maximum statutory sentence of up to five years in prison.

Mr. Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, commended the investigative efforts of ATF and the U.S. Marshals Service. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Theodore Cooperstein.

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