Guns found in Wei Xu’s home; photo via US Attorney’s office
A US Customs and Border Protection watch commander at the Long Beach seaport admitted to illegally selling guns — just like Eric Holder.
Wei Xu, 56, of Santa Fe Springs, was arrested in early February after an undercover sting revealed he sold three guns out of the trunk of his car to officers.
Xu has been on unpaid administrative leave since his arrest and according to a spox for the US attorney’s office, he will be fired. He is facing a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison if convicted.
Xu pleaded guilty on Wednesday to federal gun trafficking and tax evasion charges.
The Los Angeles Time reported:
In court Wednesday, Xu pleaded guilty to illegally selling guns on the internet, some of which he obtained by using his power as a law enforcement official, and to creating a fake company to avoid paying taxes, prosecutors said. He also pleaded guilty to illegally possessing unregistered firearms and making false statements to a federal agency about his involvement with a Chinese company to get a secret-level security clearance.
Prosecutors said that between the late 1990s and when he was arrested, Xu sold at least 99 guns without a license, some within days of buying them. Officials said he increased his profits by exploiting his status as a law enforcement officer to buy handguns that can’t be sold to the public by a federal licensed dealer.
When investigators searched Xu’s home in February, they found more than 250 weapons, including 41 machine guns and two short-barreled rifles. None was registered with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, officials said.
The China connection…
According to investigators, Xu worked for a China-based auto parts import business but lied about it in order to obtain a secret-level security clearance.
He also set up a fake Florida-based company between 2005-2017 in order to evade the IRS.
“Mr. Xu’s public life as a federal officer masked his private greed and disrespect for the law, which he demonstrated through illegal weapons sales, tax evasion, and lying about contacts with foreign nationals,” U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said in a statement. “Public officials promise to act with integrity when they take an oath of office, and we will zealously prosecute those who mock the laws they have sworn to uphold.”
Xu has a very long history of illegally selling guns and he lied about working for a China-based company — how did he weasel his way into the CBP and manage to get a security clearance??
