Shem Wayne Alexander, Firearms Smuggling, Florida 2024

Florida Man Pleads Guilty to Smuggling Firearms

Tampa, Florida – In a shocking case of firearms smuggling, Shem Wayne Alexander (35, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago) has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to smuggle firearms from the United States to Trinidad and Tobago. Alexander, a national of Trinidad and Tobago, faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.

According to the plea agreement, Alexander and his co-conspirators unlawfully exported firearms, firearms components (including upper/lower receivers and gun parts kits), and related items from Florida to Trinidad and Tobago between April 2019 and April 2022. On April 21, 2021, members of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service and Customs and Excise Division at the Piarco International Airport in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago seized a shipment containing two punching bags.

Alexander and his co-conspirators had sent the shipment from the United States to Trinidad and Tobago describing the contents of said shipment as “household items.” In reality, concealed within the two punching bags were approximately eleven 9mm pistols, two .38 caliber special revolvers, a 12 gauge semi-automatic shotgun, three AR-15 barrel foregrips, 19 lower pistol grip assemblies, 11 forearm bolt assemblies, three AR-15-style barrels with forearm grips, 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, fifteen .38 caliber rounds, 36 shells, six magazine couplers, and two shotgun chokes.

Alexander was arrested in Jamaica on November 15, 2024, pursuant to a U.S. provisional arrest request. He was extradited to the United States on December 20, 2024.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, including HSI’s Legal Attaché for the Caribbean, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, with assistance provided by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (Transnational Organized Crime Unit and Special Investigations Unit), United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and United States Customs and Border Protection.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys David W.A. Chee and Adam W. McCaull.

This case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most serious transnational criminal organizations. The investigation highlights the ongoing threat of firearms smuggling and the importance of international cooperation in combating transnational crime.

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