Akeem Richards-Crawford, 31, Dwayne Harrison, 34, and Jannai Stewart, 35, citizens of Canada, have been charged with conspiracy to smuggle and the smuggling of firearms and firearm magazines from the United States to Canada.
According to the indictment, Richards-Crawford and Harrison traveled from Canada to the United States in October 2023, renting a vehicle and a hotel room in the Detroit-Metropolitan area before traveling to Houston, Texas, and Cincinnati, Ohio, to obtain firearms.
After obtaining the firearms, Richards-Crawford and Harrison returned to the Eastern District of Michigan, where they executed their smuggling scheme. On October 26, 2023, they drove to the Algonac, Michigan area with a backpack containing 36 firearms.
Harrison then boarded a jet ski on the St. Clair river and traveled to Canada with the firearms. However, after realizing he had approached an unmarked police vehicle instead of a pickup, Harrison dropped the backpack and fled on foot.
Canadian law enforcement officers located the backpack and recovered 36 firearms, each individually wrapped in tube socks. Stewart, Harrison’s actual pickup driver, was encountered nearby after Harrison texted him to come and pick him up, but instead of finding Harrison, he found the police.
The defendants face up to 10 years in prison for each smuggling count and up to 5 years in prison on the conspiracy count if convicted. The public is reminded that an indictment is not evidence of guilt, and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The case is being investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Canada’s Ontario Provincial Police.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Douglas Salzenstein and Erin Ramamurthy, along with Chantelle Dial, Trial Attorney, Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, United States Department of Justice.
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Key Facts
- State: Michigan
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Weapons|Organized Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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